The 14th race of the Formula 1 season will take place at the historic Autodromo Nazionale Monza race track in Italy this Sunday. The Italian Grand Prix (Gran Premio d’Italia) is the last race in Europe before the flyaway races start with the Singapore Grand Prix. The Italian Grand Prix along with the British Grand Prix has the distinction of being the longest continuously staged Grand Prix races. This is the 67th running of the Italian GP, with all but one race hosted at Monza, with the 1980race being held at Imola.
Italian Grand Prix Preview
The History
The original track, built in the 1920s was 10-kilometers long and was comprised of a road circuit and an oval track built in a densely wooded area in the city of Monza, near Milan in Italy. In 1950, the seventh and final race of the first Formula 1 World Championship was held at Monza. The redesigned 6.3 kilometer circuit was a high-speed track with long straights and fast corners.
The original oval track which formed part of the circuit had steep bankings and was the scene of many accidents and fatalities in the early years. The F1 Grand Prix used different configurations of the road and oval tracks over the years. In 1961, a collision between Wolfgang von Trips and Jim Clark resulted in the death of Von Trips and 15 spectators. After this tragedy, the oval track was abandoned for safety reasons. The old track with steep embankments still exists, albeit in a decayed state now.
The modern Monza circuit is 5.793-kilometers long and comprises mainly of the road track, with chicanes and barriers added over the years to improve safety. After the death of the great Ayrton Senna in 1994 at the San Marino GP, held at the other Italian track at Imola, the run-off areas were increased with new gravel traps at Monza. Since 2014, the gravel trap in the run-off area at Parabolica has been replaced by tarmac. The circuit will undergo a further re-design for the 2017 season to improve safety. After all the changes, the circuit at Monza will get even faster. This is already the fastest track on the F1 calendar and hence the name “Temple of Speed”.
The Italian GP holds special significance for not only its history, but also as the home Grand Prix of the most storied team in F1, the Scuderia Ferrari team. The passionate and vocal fans of Ferrari commonly referred to as ‘the Tifosi’ create a great atmosphere at the Italian GP. The noisy fans do not hesitate to make rival teams and drivers aware of their home support for Ferrari.
The Drivers and Teams
The home team Ferrari sits atop the leader board with 18 wins at the Italian GP. Arch-rivals McLaren are the second-most successful team with 10 wins at Monza. Williams are the third-most successful team there with six wins. The current world championship leaders Mercedes have four wins and look set for a third straight victory in 2016.
The inaugural race was fittingly won by the Italian Giuseppe “Nino” Farina, the first F1 World Drivers’ Champion (driving for Alfa Romeo at that time). Michael Schumacher has the most wins at the Italian GP with five victories, all in Ferrari colors (1996, 1998, 2000, 2003 and 2006). Nelson Piquet has four wins, with two wins each for the Brabham and Williams team. Rubens Barrichello has three wins, with the last win recorded for the now defunct Brawn GP team in 2009. Juan-Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Ronnie Peterson and Alain Prost also have three wins each at Monza. In 1978, the ‘Super Swede’ Ronnie Peterson unfortunately died after suffering severe leg injuries after a collision with James Hunt at Monza. Among the current drivers, Sebastian Vettel (2008, 2011, 2013) and Lewis Hamilton (2012, 2014, 2015) with 3 wins have dominated the Italian GP in recent years. Fernando Alonso (2007, 2010) is the only other winner on the current grid.
The Circuit
The 5.793 km Monza circuit with 11 corners (7 right-hand and 4 left-hand corners) and very high-speed straights is the fastest track on the F1 calendar with an average speed of over 250 km/h. The track is essentially made of very high speed straights with chicanes to slow the drivers down. Monza demands the lowest downforce setup of all the tracks in F1. Drivers are on full throttle 74% of the time and the fuel consumption is medium. The brake-wear is high, with heavy loads placed on the engines. Most teams will use a new engine at Monza to gain a small speed advantage at this ‘Temple of Speed’.
Sector 1 from Turn 1 to Turn 3 starts with the slow tight right-left chicane at the Variente Del Retiffilo (Turns 1 and 2) leading to the fast right-handed Curva Biassono (Turn 3, originally called Curva Grande) which leads to a fast and short straight.
Sector 2 from Turn 4 to Turn 7 starts with a tight chicane (Turns 4 and 5) leading to the two Lesmo curves. Curva di Lesmo (Turns 6 and 7) are two very high-speed right-hand corners which lead to the very long winding straight.
Sector 3 from Turn 8 to Turn 11 starts with the tight Variante Ascari left-right chicane (Turns 8, 9 and 10) leading to a long straight which leads to the iconic Parabolica (Turn 11). On a flat track with no elevation changes there is a slight downhill gradient leading to the Parabolica. The drivers have to negotiate this tricky and fast radial right-hander which leads them to the long start-finish straight.
There are two DRS zones this year at this circuit with many overtaking opportunities at the slow chicanes that punctuate the high-speed straights. The first DRS detection point comes before the entry to Lesmo 2 (Turn 7), with the first DRS activation point situated along the straight after Turn 7. The second DRS detection point is located just before the Parabolica (Turn 11), with the second DRS activation zone on the start-finish straight. The pole sitter has won ten of the last twelve races at the Italian GP.
Tyre Strategies
Pirelli tyre choices are the white-striped mediums, the yellow-striped soft and red-striped supersoft tyres. The supersoft tyres and soft tyres are the tyre of choice with a majority of the drivers choosing 7 or more sets of supersoft tyres of the allocated 13 sets for each driver. The tyre wear is caused by thermal degradation on this track. Most teams could have a one pitstop race. At Spa the unusually hot conditions and high tyre pressures caused high tyre degradation. The soft compound tyres might be the tyre of choice during the race.
Pirelli Tyre Allocation: http://www.fia.com/news/f1-tyre-choices-italian-grand-prix
Current Form
Lewis Hamilton (232 pts) held on to a nine point lead over his team mate Nico Rosberg (223 points) after Spa. Rosberg won the last race in Spa to narrow the gap by ten points. Hamilton started at the back of the grid after a 55-place grid penalty imposed after multiple engine changes. The Briton limited damage to his championship challenge by taking advantage of the Safety Cars and Red Flags to finish third. With Hamilton now having acquired three new engines for the rest of the season, the championship battle between the Silver Arrows team mates is truly on. Daniel Ricciardo (151 points) stays in third place in the drivers’ title race. Mercedes lead the constructors’ championship comfortably over Red Bull Racing. Red Bull Racing have now opened up a twenty-two point gap over Ferrari. Force India have overtaken Williams for fourth place and McLaren have overtaken Toro Rosso for sixth.
The weekend at Monza brings a huge focus on the home team Ferrari. In their quest to get ahead of Red Bull, the Maranello-based team have brought an upgraded engine to this race in front of their adoring fans. But Mercedes with their class-leading engine will be the favourites this weekend. Equally Red Bull Racing will be on the backfoot on this fast track that puts a premium on engines. Hamilton will start on pole after clinching his third consecutive pole at Monza and his fifth pole overall here. With the two Ferrari drivers on the second row eager to make a great start and challenge them, a most exciting race is in prospect for tomorrow.
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