Monza Friday: Russell Leads as Ferrari’s New Engine Shines

The Italian Grand Prix weekend opened with a familiar soundtrack at Monza: Ferrari expectation, Mercedes precision, and a few big names already on the back foot.

On one side of the paddock, Kimi Antonelli arrived as the first Italian in more than 70 years to lead the championship heading into his home race, even if a grid penalty hangs over his weekend. On the other, George Russell sensed an opening to drag himself back into the title fight. Between them, Ferrari rolled out a crucial power unit upgrade that might just keep its fading championship hopes alive.

By the end of FP2, it was Russell on top of the timesheets. But the story of Friday ran deeper than one silver car.

Ferrari’s new engine gives the Tifosi a reason to believe

Ferrari’s second ADUO upgrade dominated the build-up, and the early evidence suggests it’s more than just a token gesture to the home crowd.

Charles Leclerc finished FP2 in second place, only 0.120s behind Russell. The headline time mattered, but the context mattered more. Leclerc set his best lap on the soft Pirellis. The Mercedes pair – and the rapid Red Bull of Liam Lawson – ran the harder compound.

On long runs, Leclerc stayed in the conversation as well. For a car that’s spent the season staring at a power deficit on long straights, looking competitive at Monza is no small thing.

No one inside Ferrari ever claimed this engine step would erase the gap to Mercedes. The aim was to trim it, to stop Monza from exposing their weaknesses quite so brutally. On Friday’s evidence, that target looks realistic. Both drivers have the upgrade, both can feel the benefit, and for once the numbers don’t leave the Tifosi wincing.

It’s only Friday. But at this track, where Ferrari’s flaws usually get dragged into the daylight, a promising start is worth more than just polite applause.

Honda’s new power unit hits a wall at the Temple of Speed

If Ferrari’s engine department walked away encouraged, Honda’s left with questions.

Fernando Alonso had suggested Monza would be the true litmus test of Honda’s latest power unit, more so than its debut at Zandvoort. He was right. The answer, at least on day one, was brutal.

On a circuit where power rules, Honda’s works partnership with Aston Martin found itself near the bottom of the order. Alonso and Lance Stroll ended up back in the pack, effectively bracketing the Cadillacs and sitting more than a second off the next-slowest car once Esteban Ocon’s compromised Haas running is discounted.

Trackside general manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara had already warned that Honda needed to be “realistic” and that Monza would be “challenging for [the] power unit side”. Even with expectations tempered, this was a sobering readout.

Monza is the harshest dynamometer in the calendar. On Friday, it showed Honda exactly where it stands.

Russell pounces as Mercedes smells opportunity

Russell had been measured on Thursday. No big declarations, no chest-beating.

“I don’t know if we can say we’re favourites this weekend,” he said, pointing out how tight the field has become and how a single tenth in qualifying can swing a podium. He talked about opportunity, not dominance.

Twenty-four hours later, he turned that opportunity into a statement. After trailing Ferrari by three-tenths in FP1, Russell flipped the script in FP2 to lead Leclerc by 0.120s and head the field on a day when Mercedes’ inherent strengths shone.

Monza’s low-energy, low-downforce layout plays to the Mercedes package. The car looks efficient, stable, and quick in a straight line – exactly what’s needed here. Russell’s cause will only be strengthened in qualifying, when penalised team-mate and title rival Antonelli can act as a strategic ally in Q3, even if he can’t fight him on Sunday from the same grid slot.

There is a caveat. Russell’s engine is ageing, while Ferrari’s ADUO 2 unit is fresh and upgraded. No one knows how much more performance Ferrari can unlock across the weekend.

But on Friday, when the first blows were traded, Russell landed his cleanly.

Red Bull’s slide continues as Verstappen fights the car

Not long ago, Red Bull and Max Verstappen spoke optimistically as they committed to a future together, even knowing this season wouldn’t be about titles. They expected pain, but not like this.

Since that pre-Zandvoort deal announcement, the results have stung: sixth in the Dutch sprint, a crash in the grand prix, and now a ragged, frustrated Friday at Monza.

In FP2, Verstappen’s radio lit up with complaints. No downforce. A forced wing change. No grip in slow-speed corners. Brakes not behaving. The car “jumping” on the front axle. It read less like fine-tuning and more like a driver wrestling a package that simply doesn’t want to cooperate.

The timesheets told the same story: Red Bull mired in the midfield, with ninth and 12th the uncomfortable reality. At a circuit where the car should at least be tidy, if not spectacular, Verstappen may need his trademark heroics just to drag the team into the fight for the upper midfield, never mind the podium.

For a four-time world champion, that’s a jarring way to start an Italian Grand Prix weekend.

Bearman lights up Haas with a giant upgrade

If there was a genuine feel-good story on Friday, it belonged to Ollie Bearman.

Haas brought its biggest upgrade of the 2026 season to Monza, and only Bearman got the full package: new bodywork, plus the latest Ferrari engine. He made it count. Eighth in FP2, just 0.8s off Russell’s benchmark and a mere 0.02s behind Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad, was a serious return.

Bearman didn’t oversell it, but he didn’t hide his relief either. He called it Haas’s best Friday since around March, and admitted the team badly needed a lift. This was it.

The new package has given him more downforce through the corners and, just as importantly, more confidence. There is a trade-off – the car’s a bit draggier than some rivals – and he knows Saturday will be a game of slipstreams and track position.

Haas head of car engineering Hoagy Nidd was more blunt: “It’s a huge upgrade. We’ve updated all of the chassis. It’s all of the bodywork rearwards of the cockpit pretty much.” For a team trying to snap a six-race run without points, that kind of overhaul had to deliver something.

On Friday, Bearman showed it might be enough to change their weekend – and maybe their season.

Ocon left exposed in the Haas comparison

The flip side of Haas’s upgrade story was Esteban Ocon’s quietly miserable day.

Ocon has the new bodywork but not the new Ferrari engine, thanks to the quirks of F1’s homologation rules. The result? He ended FP2 more than a second adrift of Bearman, a gulf that can’t be explained by aero alone.

Nidd moved quickly to play down the gap, pointing out that Ocon hadn’t been given the best opportunity to chase a headline lap and that the engine difference doesn’t fully account for the disparity. Traffic also interrupted his push laps – a familiar Monza complaint, but no less damaging for that.

Still, the optics are harsh. One Haas in the top 10 with a transformed package. The other stuck in 18th, trying to piece together a clean lap and a clear picture of where he really stands.

Friday at Monza rarely decides a title, but it often reveals who’s ready to fight for one. Russell and Mercedes look poised. Ferrari’s new engine has given its fans a reason to roar again. Honda and Red Bull, for very different reasons, leave day one with work to do.

Now comes the hard part: turning promise into grid positions on a Saturday that could reshape the balance of this championship.