Max Verstappen can take his tenth win in a row today, which would only make him the record holder for the most number of F1 wins in a row, a record he currently shares with Sebastian Vettel. Verstappen will have to overcome ‘the curse of Monza’ for this.
A week ago, Max Verstappen took his ninth F1 victory in a row in Zandvoort. With that, Verstappen nestled alongside Sebastian Vettel as co-record holder of the most number of F1 victories in a row. Today Max Verstappen can only become the record holder with ten victories in a row, but for that he will have to overcome the ‘Monza Curse’, or ‘the curse of Monza’.
In the past three, the winner of the GP of Italy in Monza always had to deal with a retirement the following year. What makes it all the more remarkable is that the three victories were always ‘high-profile’ victories.
In 2019, Charles Leclerc managed to prevail after a titanic battle with Mercedes, he thrilled the Tifosi because Ferrari managed to win its home race for the first time in years. The following year disaster struck as Charles Leclerc crashed during the race. It was the race in which Pierre Galsy won the Italian GP in a sensational way, after being sent back to AlphaTauri by Red Bull about a year earlier.
So great joy in 2020 with Pierre Gasly, for whom it was his first F1 victory. Great joy, of course, also at AlphaTauri for whom it was the second victory in its F1 history, after Sebastian Vettel (then Toro Rosso)’s victory in 2008 at the same Monza circuit. A year later, disaster struck for Gasly as the Frenchman had to retire in the third lap after a crash.
In 2021 it was Daniel Riccardo’s turn, who managed to triumph in Monza despite a rocky season at McLaren. It was McLaren’s only F1 win that season and it almost literally fell from the sky. Great joy again at Ricciardo and McLaren, but fate also struck in 2022 because then Ricciardo had to give up.
Which brings us to 2022 because last year Max Verstappen managed to triumph. Now it’s up to Verstappen to break the ‘Monza Curse’, or ‘the curse of Monza’…