Italian Grand Prix Preview

Hot on the heels of the previous round, Monza, ‘Temple of Speed’ welcomes the Formula One field this weekend. Over the years, the race track of Monza became a spiritual home and a pilgrimage destination for true racing fans.

The Italian Grand Prix is one of the longest running events on the Formula One calendar. Together with the British Grand Prix, it is the only GP which hosted races without interruption since the championship came into being. Interestingly, every Italian Grand Prix was hosted by Monza except in 1980 when it moved to Imola.

Monza is often referred to as the Temple of Speed, but it is regarded by many as the embodiment of Formula One racing. The enthusiastic and passionate fans of Ferrari, the Tifosi often refer to the circuit as ‘La pista magica’. The fans always create a unique atmosphere over the Grand Prix weekend not only in the close proximity of the arena of speed, but also in the entire town of Monza which turns into a Formula One village for four days.

The legendary circuit has been the site of many fatal accidents, especially in the early years of the Formula One world championship, and has claimed the lives of 52 drivers and 35 spectators. Track modifications have continuously occurred, to improve spectator safety and reduce curve speeds

The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza opened its doors back in 1922. At that time, nobody could forecast that the world’s third purpose-built race track after those of Brooklands and Indianapolis would once become one of the main spiritual homes of motorsport.

The Italian GP established itself as one of the main pillars of F1 by being one of the longest running events on the calendar. The event was the last race of the inaugural season of the sport and it has been held every year since then. From the current calendar, only the British, the Belgian, the Monaco and the Italian GP were part of the calendar of the 1950 campaign and the Italian Grand Prix is the only one next to the British GP which has featured the calendar in every year.

The history of racing on Italian soil started before F1 was called into being: the former oval layout and then the very unique high-speed nature of the current circuit and the beautiful scenery of the Royal Villa located in a woodland setting all played part in the Italian GP’s merciless conquest in the world of motorsport.

The track is located just in the skirts of the beautiful town of Monza. Being the third-largest city of Lombardy with its population of 120000 habitants, this town is best known for its Grand Prix racing circuit. The track is some 15 kilometres north of Milan. Visitors can reach the beautiful town of Monza by car or by public transport. By train, it only takes eleven minutes from the central railway station.

Autodromo di Monza is the third oldest in the world, after Brooklands circuit in England and Indianapolis in the United States. Construction of the racing circuit near Milano was decided in January 1922 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Milan Automobile Club.

The construction work was completed in record time of 110 days and the track opened its gates on 3 September 1922. The original track featured a combination of a 5.5km road track and a 4.5 high-speed oval.

The incredible speed of the track, particularly reached on the oval part which features two banked curves, led to many fatal accident. The worst ever one happened in 1928, resulting in the death of the driver Emilio Materassi and 27 spectators. It was then decided that alternative layouts would be adopted in the future and some artificial chicanes were also installed.

In 1938, the circuit went through extensive modification, including the resurfacing of the road curse. However, the World War Two ended any activities on the track and it was not earlier than 1948 when the Milan Automobile Club could complete restoration.

Formula One cars returned to the track in 1948 and the track played host to the first ever F1 Italian Grand Prix in 1950. That inaugural race was won by Alfa Romeo’s Nino Farina. In 1954, a major reconstruction began. The entire circuit was changed and that resulted with a 5.75 km road course and a new 4.25 km high-speed oval.

The circuit was used for the Italian Grand Prix races until 1961, with the 10 km layout used in 1955, 1956, 1960 and 1961. The 1961 Italian Grand Prix saw the death of the Ferrari driver Wolfgang Von Trips and 15 spectators on the straight before one of the banked curves which then ended the high-speed track usage in the Formula One Grand Prix and other single-seater races.

The last race on the longest Monza layout was held in 1969. After that, all races were removed to the 5.75 km road course. Two chicanes were built in 1972 at the entrance to the fastest curves on the track – the Grande curve at the end of the grandstand straight and the Ascari curve. The chicanes were named Variante del Retifilo and Variante Ascari.
In 1989, the track went through a major renovation of pits complex. Ayrton Senna’s death at Imola in 1994 prompted the organizers to increase the safety standards which shortened the track to 5770 meters. The final change of the configuration and track layout happened in 2000, when the redesign of some curves resulted with the current track length of 5793 meters.

With five victories to his name, the legendary Michael Schumacher is the most successful driver of the history of the Italian Grand Prix. Interestingly, the German claimed all his victories for Italian myth Ferrari. Hot on Schumacher’s heels are Lewis Hamilton and Nelson Piquet with four wins to both world champions. Three-time Italian GP winners are Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Alain Prost, Sebastian Vettel, Rubens Barrichello and Ronnie Peterson. There is an illustrious list of two-time winners of Italian GP, including Fernando Alonso, Juan Pablo Montoya, Damon Hill, Ayrton Senna, Niki Lauda, Clay Regazzoni, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees and Phil Hill.

Home hero, legend and myth Ferrari has an astonishing record on home turf. The Italians claimed victory on 18 occasions while the second-best McLaren has ‘only’ ten wins on its tally. Mercedes and Williams claimed victories six times. British marque Lotus follows the previous duo, Lotus was victorious five times. The British duo of BRM and Brabham are the next teams on the order with three wins apiece. The list of two-time Italian GP winning teams are formed by Maserati, Vanwall, Red Bull and Renault.

It is worth noting that Alfa Romeo may have only one championship victory, but the Milan-born squad was the pre-championship master with its seven triumphs.

The modern Grand Prix layout of the arena of speed has a length of 5.793km. The total race distance is 306.72km and to complete this, drivers have to cover 53 laps during the Grand Prix.
The official track record was set up by Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichaello during the 2004 edition of the race.

The track is made up of 11 corners, of which seven are right-handed ones. The Temple of Speed is characterized by long, full-throttle sections, interrupted by slowish turns and chicanes. The longest straight is the main straight which often plays a big role at the start as the distance from the pole position to the first corner is relatively long with 638.1m.

One-stop strategy has proved to be the favourite choice over the last years, aided by the low tyre wear, but also the huge time penalty for a pit visit. Drivers have to adhere to a speed limit of 80kph over a distance of 418.8m, lading to a time loss of 18.8s.

Drivers apply the brakes six times, but only three of them are heavy braking actions. Fuel consumption is relatively low despite to the fact that drivers spend well over 70 per cent of the lap at full throttle. The track is often used throughout the years which means that its evolution over the race weekend is relatively low.