Formula One Vault

PRIXVIEW – Italian Grand Prix

Round fifteen brings F1 to Monza for the traditional closing race of the European season. The Italian Grand Prix is one of the highlights of the season thanks to the tosifi all here to support Ferrari, one of two races to feature on every season of the championship and hosted more races than any other circuit.

The 3.6-mile circuit has seen many different alterations over the years but despite that the circuit has been one which has rewarded high speed and downforce, this makes the slipstreams around the circuit gives opportunities for overtaking. Monza can on average see speeds of over 200mph, with the current record in the turbo-hybrid era being 224mph.

Monza places unique on the current F1 calendar for its mix of long straights and slow chicanes. The low downforce circuit puts strain on engines, which are on full power for 80% of the lap, and gearboxes, which are used heavily in the chicanes. There is no other race like Monza, the Tifosi create an atmosphere like no other.

The high-speed nature and demands on the cars often lead to crashes and accidents because of the huge stopping zones at the end of the straights, its also a circuit where the slipstream is powerful. There have been in recent years shambolic ends to qualifying as cars try to get the tow to gain more lap time.

Ferrari the national team of Italy have won twenty races over the last century, the passionate fans add to the atmosphere of Monza, and they won their first race in 1952. The 1953 Fangio won in a Maserati; although Ascari had already won the championship at the Swiss Grand Prix. 1954 turned out to be an interesting race; as up-and-comer, Stirling Moss in a Maserati passed both Fangio’s Mercedes and Ascari’s Ferrari

By its nature and historic prestige, there have been many fatalities during the races hundred-year history. One of the deadliest weekends in the history of Grand Prix racing was the 1933 race when three drivers were killed. It became a turning point for Enzo Ferrari whose friend Baconin Borzacchinim, Giuseppe Campari and Polish aristocrat Count Stanislas Czaykowski.

It prompted the first attempts to introduce safety measures, at the time the surface was virtually identical to that to an ordinary town and country road, except instead of the surface being made of dirt and/or tarmac, it was made of tarmac, concrete and/or bricks. A new layout was introduced the Florio circuit, the five-race held pre war would then be dominated by German manufacturers and the 1939 abandoned following the outbreak of war.

The 1947 race saw the race held not at Monza, but in the fairgrounds park in the city of Milan’s district of Portello, and this race was won by Italian Carlo Felice Trossi driving an Alfa Romeo. 1961 saw a return to the combined circuit, but it was to see yet another tragedy.

Two Ferrari drivers, Hill and Wolfgang von Trips, came into the race with a chance at winning the championship. Fighting for fourth place while Hill was leading and while von Trips approached the Parabolica, the Jim Clark slightly moved over into the path of the German and the two collided. Von Trips crashed into an embankment next to the road and then went flying into a crowd of people standing on it. Von Trips was thrown out of his car and was killed, as were 14 spectators.

1963 marked the last attempt to use the banking, but during Friday practice the concrete banking was so rough and bumpy that cars were being mechanically torn apart. It was feared that there would be no finishers for the race itself. Briton Bob Anderson’s Lola crashed after losing a wheel on the banking, although he was not injured); the drivers then threatened to walk off unless they raced on the road circuit only.

1966 was the last time an Italian won a race at Monza with Ludovico Scarfiotti taking his only win in F1. However, Italian-American Mario Andretti would take victory is 1977. During this era, Monza saw a fair share of fatalities, Jochen Rindt the only posthumous champion killed in qualifying in 1970.

A total of twelve Italian drivers have won the Italian Grand Prix; ten before World War II and three when it was part of the world championship; most recently Ludovico Scarfiotti won in 1966. But, that can be made up for the number of wins which Ferrari has with nineteen wins.

1979 saw changes to Monza, run-off areas were added to the Curva Grande and Lesmo corners and the track was upgraded. Scheckter, now driving for Ferrari, won the race and the Drivers’ Championship. 1980 moved to Imola allowing Monza to be redeveloped and modernised, Imola would remain on the calendar until 2006 as the San Marino Grand Prix, re-joining as the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in 2020.

The 1981 Italian Grand Prix was won by rising star Alain Prost, and that race saw Briton John Watson have a huge accident at the second Lesmo Curve which also took out Italian Michele Alboreto. Watson was uninjured in his carbon-fibre McLaren.

1988 saw a memorable win; as McLaren had won every race up to the Italian Grand Prix, Prost had gone out with engine problems and his teammate Ayrton Senna had crashed into a backmarker with two laps to go- and Austrian Gerhard Berger in a Ferrari took victory, followed by Alboreto to make it a Ferrari 1–2. This was particularly memorable because Enzo Ferrari had died a month before this event.

The current layout with the Variante Rettifilo chicane was introduced in 2000, which co-inside with the return to dominance by Ferrari, with Michael Schumacher who won the race five times in seven years. Sebastian Vettel won his first Grand Prix in a Toro Rosso (Alpha Tauri) in the wet becoming then the sport’s youngest race winning.

But since the beginning of the hybrid era, Mercedes have dominated the race with Hamilton taking four wins. This season, the silver arrows look unstoppable as this circuit requires high speeds and downforce, the circuit is one which often sees new records set in terms of lap records and speeds.

However, the last two races have seen big surprises with Pierre Gasly taking his maiden win in a chaotic 2020 race. While McLaren took their first win in a decade with a one-two the only on-two of 2021 last time out

Race & Circuit Guide

Fast facts

• Autodromo Nazionale di Monza was completed in 1922 and was just the third permanent autodrome in the world at that time; Brooklands in England and Indianapolis in the United States were the two others
• More than eighty Italians have started their home Grand Prix, but the last local winner was Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966. Mario Andretti, who won in 1977, was born in Italy but competed for the USA.
• Monza is a happy hunting ground for Lewis Hamilton, who has taken the win here in four of the past eight races. But he has finished on the podium in each of those, adding an eighth career top 3 at the Italian Grand Prix this time

Event timetable

What happened in 2021?

Valtteri Bottas took pole position for the sprint after beating his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by nine-hundredths of a second. Mercedes looked to have the upper hand on Friday, but the seven-time champion did manage to improve on his final run but was left in second, while the Red Bull driver was four-tenths behind the Mercedes.

McLaren look to be the fastest of those in the midfield, Lando Norris two hundredths behind Verstappen in fourth after going six-thousandths of a second faster than his teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

While Bottas converted sprint pole into race pole, the Finn would start at the back thanks to a engine penalty. Bottas finished the sprint two seconds ahead of Verstappen, while teammate Hamilton was held off by McLaren’s Lando Norris during the closing stages, but the Mercedes appeared at times sliding around a bit on his tyres.

The two McLarens start second and third on the grid, with Verstappen’s former teammate Daniel Ricciardo starting alongside him for the first time since Mexico City 2018. Ricciardo and his teammate Norris got Hamilton after the seven-time champion made a poor start losing positions from the start of the race, meaning he finished fifth and starts fourth on the grid.

That good qualifying for McLaren took advantage of the collision between Verstappen-Hamilton following the pits stop. As the Mercedes re-joined the race following his pit stop he looked to get alongside Verstappen at Turn One, the Dutchman attempting to go around the outside in the braking zone, which put him on the inside for Turn Two.

Ricciardo then went onto lead the race and beat Norris by nearly ten seconds to take McLaren’s first victory in almost ten years. On the restart, both managed to pull away from Bottas, through the remainder of the race. Bottas’s chance of chasing the McLarens were natured after getting stuck behind Perez, however, the Mexican was given a five-second penalty for overtaking after cutting the chicane and gaining a lasting advantage in his battle with Leclerc.

Race Result – 1) D. Ricciardo, McLaren – Mercedes, 01:21:54.36, 2) L. Norris, McLaren – Mercedes, +00:01.747 3) V. Bottas, Mercedes,+00:04.921

What to watch for?

Red Bull looks unstoppable at the moment and they appear to have a good all-round car and Max Verstappen is looking on course for his second championship. Monza is a high-speed high downforce circuit, meaning it could swing towards Ferrari like we saw in Silverstone and Paul Ricard. Red Bull is operationally better than Ferrari and I think that has been key in the way they are almost are steaming toward the title. Charles Leclerc is beginning to reluctantly accept if you read between the lines that barring an extraordinary set of events this championship is over.

Ferrari has been very quick at places like Monza but what has let them down this year and at Zandvoort as well is these operational and strategic errors in races, what we need to see from them is them learning from that now so they don’t make them next year. They have fallen into that pattering out we have seen over the last decade, but there is still time but their hopes aren’t in their hands to win this championship.

Mercedes have started to get back into the championship-winning team we seen over the last decade there have been operating errors at Zandvoort which cost them the opportunity of taking victory. A pattern we have seen all season is they are faster in races and they should be quicker if the bouncing issues at the circuit with the highest speed returns.

Monza is another old circuit with the highest speeds of the season there can be brake failures leading to crashes. On the opening lap the Variante del Rettifillo following the start can be a flash point as the cars close up in the braking zone and they need to be careful as it’s a tight chicane and some will need to take avoiding action. The second chicane as well can also be a place where accidents can happen.

This race is also one where the teams need to react to events, this is a circuit hard on brakes and lined by gravel beyond the tarmac run off areas. This makes the possibility of a safety car high and we could see multiple pit stops given the high tyre wear, as we saw at Zandvoort timing of these stops can be key in this race.

2020 vs 2021 Race Data

2021 Lap time comparison

Tyres