Ricciardo offers damning verdict on substantial Monza F1 changes

Daniel Ricciardo has strongly criticised track upgrades made to Italian Grand Prix venue Monza, fearing the track has lost some of its "old-school" nature. 

Ahead of this weekend's race, Monza has been re-surfaced and kerbs at the chicanes have been removed to be replaced by flat chicanes. 

Such kerbs at the first chicane were responsible for launching Max Verstappen over the top of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes in the 2021 race - which is Ricciardo's last grand prix win to date.

The Australian, racing at Monza for the first time since 2022 following his injury lay-off last season, is worried about the loss of some of what he believes makes Monza unique in using the kerbs to gain lap-time.

"They've changed the kerbs, I went around the track this morning, and I can't say that I am impressed," Ricciardo surmised to media including RacingNews365.

"Some elements have been lost of the character of the circuit, and maybe it is as a driver we experience it and it makes sense to us and it might not to the outside world, but kerbs and things make a circuit unique. 

"When you put some flat kerbs in at like the second chicane at Turn 5, you would always get over the kerb, then there was a thin concrete strip and then gravel. 

"You would always try to run your wheels on that little bit of concrete to use all the track, but not too much. It was quite bumpy as well. 

"So part of Monza, how old school it was has now gone, so there is a few things, but the resurfacing looks great.

"The asphalt looks really nice, but I am a bit disappointed in the kerbs, it is very flat now so ultimately, because we can use so much more kerb, it is probably going to be wider and easier to be flat through nine and 10."

A potential upside?

However, Ricciardo did feel that there was an opportunity the flatter kerbs would open up in terms of slipstreaming, something which is notoriously difficult at Monza given the low-downforce configurations the cars deploy.

"I don't want to be all negative, and maybe it means we can follow closer because it is easy flat and you will get a bigger slipstream," he added.

"But I think [track designers] still under-rate kerbs and what it does to a circuit, how it changes the feeling, the character and the approach. 

"I'm going to enjoy driving here, but it feels it has lost a little bit of that old-schoolness that it had.

"We go to a lot of modern circuits now which are fun, they're great but if we're going to keep the old school ones, then let's keep them old school. That's a little bit of my concern."