Verstappen and Norris in agreement over Italian GP 'unknown'

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris are in agreement that the Italian Grand Prix will be an unknown in terms of how each team will perform. Verstappen heads to Monza with Norris having trimmed his points lead to 70 following a maximum haul of 26 last time out at the Dutch Grand Prix with pole and fastest lap. Norris and McLaren are ramping up for a championship charge whilst Verstappen and Red Bull appear on the back foot following the RB20's slump in competitiveness. At low downforce, high-speed tracks like Monza, both the MCL38 and RB20 have appeared strong, with Norris, who is looking to prevent a third straight Verstappen Monza win, keeping his cards close to his chest. "I have no idea. You ask us questions like we're meant to know. I've got no idea," Norris told media including RacingNews365 when asked if McLaren's Zandvoort pace would translate to Monza. "Anyone could be on top. Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull, us.  "Ferrari were quite quick [in the Dutch GP], we probably didn't expect them to be as good as they were.  "Maybe Red Bull struggled a bit more. I think that was probably more the factor that the Red Bull struggled a bit more than we were expecting.  "We just keep our heads down. There's no point thinking how we're going to do [at Monza].  "We'll just get there and work hard and wait until we get there. There's no point thinking ahead."

Verstappen with work to do

Verstappen, who was also asked for his thoughts as to how the Italian GP would play out, pointed to a key problem with the RB20.  "We just need to figure out our balance issues. I think that will already help a lot also with [tyre] deg," he said.  "Of course, in Monza, a lot is new. You know, Tarmac, kerbs, even the layout in Turn 1, 2. So also we need to understand that a bit more.  "But we know we have quite a bit of work to do."