Antonelli’s Monza F1® Grid Penalty
Antonelli’s Grid Penalty and the Extreme Heat Trackside here at Monza this Friday morning, and the air in the royal park is thick, heavy, and stifling already. Right now I am feeling the heat around the race track, and the ambient temperatures are already climbing past 33°C and heading toward 35°C, and asphalt temperatures are set to push 50°C; the FIA’s official Heat Hazard declaration is no mere formality. This will certainly put pressure on cooling packages, hybrid batteries, and driver physiology, and my guess is we'll see DNFs this weekend. Throw in the late-night confirmation that championship leader Kimi Antonelli will take a full power unit and gearbox grid drop to start from the back of the grid, and the entire tactical landscape of the Italian Grand Prix has blown wide open. When track temperatures cross the 50°C mark, Monza stops being just a flat-out sprint and becomes a mechanical survival test, adding to the unpredictability. FRIDAY ...
