New track, new colors, new confidence for Ferrari heading into home race at Italian GP

MONZA, Italy (AP) — There's a new track, new colors and renewed confidence for Ferrari as the Formula One team heads into its home race at Monza.

Ferrari did better than expected at last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, where Charles Leclerc earned a second straight podium finish and teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. surged from 10th on the grid to place fifth.

That was a surprise in what was expected to be a weekend of damage limitation before planned car upgrades this week at the Italian Grand Prix.

It was a well-timed morale boost for a team which started 2024 fighting for wins but gradually dropped out of contention. But Leclerc was quick to temper expectations.

“I don’t let the last two races change our expectations,” he said. “We are in a difficult moment for the team. We are struggling a little bit with pace at the moment.

“We understood quite a few things since Zandvoort … it was a good race. In Spa it was good as well. Here, it should be a bit more in the direction of Spa, so hopefully we’ll be a bit more in the fight for the podium. However, for the win, I don’t think we quite have that yet.”

Ferrari won only one of the past 13 Italian GPs; Leclerc delighted the passionate red-clad fans in 2019.

Since then, the Italian Scuderia has managed only a second for Leclerc in 2022 and a third by Sainz last year.

“I wouldn’t say the feeling is that we must do better,” Leclerc said. “However, there’s definitely a huge motivation because it’s not only a normal weekend that starts from the Thursday to the Sunday, but it starts already from Monday in Maranello where we have so many tifosi (fans), and that motivates everybody.

“It seems, and it looks like, we’ve had a pretty strong car with a very low-downforce package even in the last few years where performance was not as good. That’s positive, because it’s our home race and as much as it’s giving exactly the same amount of points as other races, emotionally speaking, and for the whole team, it’s definitely a special one.”

Monza is one of the most historic circuits in F1 and the so-called ‘Temple of Speed’ has undergone considerable changes this year.

In modernisation works costing more than 20 million euros ($22 million), the track was completely resurfaced for the first time since 1922 and so will have a much darker appearance. Moreover, some of the iconic kerbs have been modified, much to the dismay of several drivers.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo inspected the track by bicycle on Thursday and said, “I can’t say I’m that impressed because some elements have lost some of the character of the circuit.

“Maybe it’s just as a driver, because we drive it and experience it, but kerbs and things like this make a circuit unique. … Part of Monza is that it was old school, and now that’s gone. The resurfacing looks great, the asphalt looks really nice, but the kerbs, I’m a bit disappointed in.”

The fans will turn Monza's stands into a sea of red, and the Ferrari cars will be their usual red, but the drivers will wear black racing suits. The new look comes after Ferrari decided “to celebrate what represents the state of the art in racing car construction: Carbon fiber, a material … which has allowed exceptional advances in safety.”

Verstappen finds himself in an unusual position.

The three-time defending champion is without a victory in five straight races — his longest winless run since 2020 — and has seen his lead trimmed to 70 points by McLaren's Lando Norris, with nine races remaining.

Compare that to the Italian GP last year when Verstappen secured a record 10th straight win in a season he simply mastered.

“I am enjoying it, yeah," he said of this season. "Would I like to win more? Yes, of course. But I also knew that, you know, a season like we had last year is very unrealistic.

“Did I expect it to be like this? Not really, with, of course, how we ended and how we started. It’s up to us to just try and make it better. I know everyone is working flat out to make it better.”

Lewis Hamilton led the way in the second practice on Friday in his last race at Monza in a Mercedes before he makes the switch to Ferrari next year.

Hamilton was just 0.003 seconds ahead of Norris and 0.103 faster than Sainz.

Verstappen — who topped the first hourlong practice session, ahead of Leclerc and Norris — was only 14th fastest in the second after his flying lap was halted by red flags, which came out after Kevin Magnussen crashed into the barriers.

The first practice also had to be halted for nearly 15 minutes after teenager Kimi Antonelli crashed in a Mercedes just 10 minutes into his first outing in an F1 car at a race weekend.

Franco Colapinto is in his first proper weekend as a Williams race driver, after replacing the axed Logan Sargeant. The Argentine — who drove a practice session for Williams at the British GP last month — was 17th fastest in both sessions at Monza.

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Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy prepares for the first free practice ahead of the Formula One Italian Grand Prix race at the Monza racetrack, in Monza, Italy, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Williams driver Franco Colapinto of Argentina arrives at the Monza racetrack, in Monza, Italy, Thursday, Aug.29, 2024. The Formula one race will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain steers his car during the second free practice ahead of the Formula One Italian Grand Prix race at the Monza racetrack, in Monza, Italy, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands steers his car during the first free practice ahead of the Formula One Italian Grand Prix race at the Monza racetrack, in Monza, Italy, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands arrives ahead of the first free practice at the Monza racetrack, in Monza, Italy, Thursday, Aug.30 , 2024. The Formula one race will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco steers his car during the first free practice ahead of the Formula One Italian Grand Prix race at the Monza racetrack, in Monza, Italy, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain and Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco look each others during a news conference at the Monza racetrack, in Monza, Italy, Thursday, Aug.29, 2024. The Formula one race will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain celebrates after winning the Formula One Dutch Grand Prix race, as Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands, left, looks on, at the Zandvoort racetrack, Netherlands, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco attends a news conference at the Monza racetrack, in Monza, Italy, Thursday, Aug.29, 2024. The Formula one race will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco walks in the paddock at the Monza racetrack, in Monza, Italy, Thursday, Aug.29, 2024. The Formula one race will be held on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dick Cheney is a career Republican still vilified by Democrats for his bullish defense of the Iraq War as vice president. But his partisan loyalties were cast aside in extraordinary fashion last week when he endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris for the White House.

Alberto Gonzales' service in George W. Bush's administration was roiled by debates over intrusive government eavesdropping and an abrupt purging of U.S. attorneys that Democrats regarded with intense suspicion. Yet the former attorney general is also opting for Harris over Republican Donald Trump.

The endorsements crystalized the remarkable evolution of the Republican Party's establishment wing, which ruled Washington during the Bush years only to be sidelined once Trump wrested control of the party. These figures, once reviled by Democrats, are so alarmed by the prospect of the former president's return to power that they are prepared to oppose their own party's nominee for the White House.

In the process, they are giving Harris a critical opening to broaden her base of support.

“It’s easier for prominent Republicans like Cheney and Gonzales to say, ‘I support Kamala Harris’ because, in effect, their old home has been ransacked and destroyed,” said Will Marshall, the founder of the Progressive Policy Institute, a center-left think tank. “The ties of partisanship, which are always strong in both parties, are attenuated by the fact that Trump has made today’s Republican Party absolutely unwelcome for prominent Republicans who served in previous administrations.”

Bush himself will not follow suit. A spokesperson says the former president has no plans to make endorsements or say publicly how he will vote.

Harris has embraced the backing of Republicans with whom she shares little common ground and whose endorsement likely has more to do with opposition to Trump than support of her policy positions. She frequently mentions that more than 200 Republicans have endorsed her, and her campaign said in an email playing up Gonzales' backing that it welcomed into the fold “every American – regardless of party – who values democracy and the rule of law.”

Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican who endorsed Harris and spoke at last month's Democratic convention, said the effect of “card-carrying, time-tested Republicans” who are behind Harris might persuade other Republicans who dislike Trump to vote against him rather than sitting out the election.

“I don’t know if we convince somebody to go Trump-to-Harris," Duncan said. “I think we go from convincing somebody just sitting at home, not voting for anybody, to voting for Kamala Harris.”

Yet how much real influence Republicans long criticized by Democrats have is unclear, especially given lingering raw feelings and Cheney’s polarizing persona across decades in Washington.

Even as the Harris campaign basks in the support, comedian Jon Stewart mocked Cheney's endorsement on “The Daily Show," addressing the ex-vice president with an expletive and shouting: “You came this close to destroying the entire world. We were this close.”

“Who in God’s name is that endorsement gonna sway?" Stewart demanded. "‘Well, I like the Democrats’ policy on child tax credits, but are they bombing enough Middle Eastern countries?'”

It would have long been unfathomable for Cheney to vote Democratic. He served three Republican presidents in roles ranging from White House chief of staff to defense secretary and vice president.

Cheney was denounced by Democrats on many fronts, including for his staunch promotion of the defense contracting firm he once helped lead, Halliburton, as well as his entanglement in a scandal over the leaking of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, whose ambassador-husband disputed the U.S. intelligence used to justify the Iraq invasion.

After Cheney accidentally shot a friend during a 2006 hunting trip, even Peggy Noonan, a former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan and veteran of Bush's reelection campaign, suggested he might need to step aside.

“At a certain point, a hate magnet can draw so much hate you don’t want to hold it in your hand anymore, you want to drop it,” she wrote then in the Wall Street Journal.

Yet Cheney endured through Bush's two terms.

That Cheney "is now considered a mainstream Republican is a sad commentary on that party and all the more reason to keep Trump and Republicans far from power in 2024,” said Adam Green co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Cheney, in 2005 speech, derided critics of the Iraq War as “opportunists” and said the suggestion that the Bush administration had purposely misled the public about the presence of weapons of mass destruction was “one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired” in Washington. He later said the Democrats’ approach to the war would “validate the al-Qaida approach,” drawing a rebuke from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

The ideological split within the Republican Party was evident long ago. Trump centered his 2016 campaign around a repudiation of the old-guard GOP base, including insisting, incorrectly, that he had always been opposed to the war.

Cheney was a prominent critic of Trump's foreign policy, rebuking the then-president at a closed-door retreat in 2019 for public complaints about the role of NATO and the surprise announcement of the withdrawal of troops from Syria.

The rupture was again on display after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. Cheney visited the building on the attack's one-year anniversary, sitting with his daughter, then-Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in the front row of the Republican side of the the House chamber as the only two members of the party at a pro forma session.

Liz Cheney, who co-chaired the House investigation into the siege before losing her seat in the 2022 Republican primary, announced her support of Harris last week, followed by her father's statement that Trump "can never be trusted with power again.”

Crystal McLaughlin, a 53-year-old Greensboro, North Carolina, health care compliance worker, said she was “very, very nervous” when Cheney was vice president but that she appreciates the Cheneys' endorsements and hopes other Republicans will follow suit.

“I don’t trust him, but you know, thank you for your support,” McLaughlin said, adding, “And hopefully your financial support.”

Gonzales, the former attorney general, said he has spoken with Trump only once. But Gonzales surfaced in a Politico opinion piece Thursday as Trump's latest prominent Republican detractor. Gonzales cited the Capitol attack, Trump's criminal cases and other factors in branding him unfit for office and contemptuous of the rule of law.

“As the United States approaches a critical election, I can’t sit quietly as Donald Trump — perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation — eyes a return to the White House,” he wrote.

That is remarkable considering that Gonzales faced condemnation from Democrats, and some GOP lawmakers, before resigning amid a scandal over the abrupt dismissal of a group of U.S. attorneys.

Some of those fired prosecutors said they felt pressured to investigate Democrats before elections. Gonzales maintained the dismissals were based on what he said were the prosecutors’ lackluster performance records.

As White House counsel in 2004, Gonzales pressed to reauthorize a secret domestic spying program, over the Justice Department’s protests. Though robust government surveillance had been championed by Republican leaders after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that support has significantly waned within the party as lawmakers take their cue from Trump's skepticism of the FBI.

“Every Republican, for the most part, at some point, is going to have to take their medicine and admit that Donald Trump was wrong for our party," said Duncan, the former Georgia lieutenant governor. “It’s just a matter of when they do it.”

Associated Press writer Makiya Seminera in Greensboro, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

FILE - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is seen in New Orleans, Aug. 28, 2007. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - Former Vice President Dick Cheney attends a primary election night gathering, Aug. 16, 2022, in Jackson, Wyo. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)