Sebastian Vettel, on his last visit as an active F1 driver to Monza – the venue of his first victory in 2008 – wasn’t shy about voicing his environmentally-driven displeasure at the ostentatious Italian airforce fly-bys pre-race, above. “It’s a great atmosphere but we were promised fly-bys were gone and it seems the president just changes his mind and F1 gives in, despite the boards around the track about goals to make the world a better place. I heard the president, whoever the president was, I don’t know, was it the president of Italy? He was insisting to have the fly-by. He’s about 100 years old so it’s difficult for him to let go of these ego things.”

A statement from Ferrari chairman John Elkann, right, on the eve of the Italian GP weekend hardly made for a ringing endorsement of team principal Mattia Binotto. It read: “We have great faith in Mattia Binotto and appreciate everything he and all our engineers have done. But there is no doubt that the work in Maranello, in the garage, on the pitwall and at the wheel needs to improve. We must continue to make progress and that goes for the mechanics, the engineers, the drivers and obviously the entire management team, including the team principal.”

Newly crowned F2 champion Felipe Drugovich, left, has been announced as Aston Martin’s official reserve driver. He will take part in some FP1 sessions for the team this year.

Alex Albon had to briefly be put in intensive care after a routine appendicectomy operation led to him suffering respiratory failure during the Italian GP weekend. He was released the following day and hoped to be back in action for Williams at Singapore.