See what Alex and Logan have to say ahead of Monza

It’s the second leg of a European double-header – and our last stop on the continent for the 2023 season.

This weekend sees the Formula 1 circus stop at the Temple of Speed for the Italian Grand Prix.

With average speeds across the lap at Monza exceeding 250 kilometres per hour, our drivers were understandably excited to hit the track.

After his fourth points-haul of the season at Zandvoort, Alex was keen to point out the potential curveballs that this weekend might have in store.

“We're obviously coming from a strong weekend as we head into Monza, so I think there's high expectations that we need to manage a little bit,” he said.

“On paper, it's a track that should suit us, however we saw in Spa that it's not always the case with the low downforce tracks.

“With the format being slightly different, qualifying will be tricky to execute well, but we come off a strong weekend with a lot of learnings, so hopefully we can apply some of that to Monza.”

Logan’s race in the Netherlands was cruelly cut short by a hydraulics failure, but that hasn’t dampened the American’s spirit.

“I’m excited to get back in the car this weekend in Monza,” he said.

“It’s such a fun place to drive and it should be a track that suits our car, which will hopefully present some opportunities. The aim is to start off the weekend on the right foot and have a good result for the team.”

Our Head of Vehicle Performance is similarly optimistic after the team’s result on the Dutch dunes.

“The FW45 performed well last weekend in Zandvoort, but the conditions were generally favourable. We were able to learn about the car and, despite some tricky conditions, secure a good race result with Alex,” Dave Robson began.

“We have investigated the issue with Logan’s car and have traced the problem to a hydraulic leak from the power steering system.

“The failure left Logan without proper control of the car, causing him to crash during the Grand Prix on Sunday. This was very unfortunate for Logan and we need to do a better job of providing him with a reliable car that he can race confidently.”

Robson also cast an eye to the unusual format attached to this weekend’s running, saying, “this weekend is the second of the ATA events of the season, which sees each driver have fewer sets of tyres than usual and a prescribed tyre use during qualifying. This complicates the weekend significantly and it will be interesting to see how each team reacts if the weekend is fully dry.”

“Monza is obviously a fairly unique circuit and some of its characteristics will suit the FW45 well. We need to maximise these but still find a set-up that delivers good overall performance and recreates the confidence that the drivers had last weekend.

“The weather forecast is currently quite good, which should suit the very soft compounds that Pirelli have made available this weekend.

“This is the final European race of the year and we are looking forward to another strong weekend before we head out to the Singapore and Japan events.”