Round 14 - Autodromo Nazionale Monza

Summary
As tradition demands, mid-September means a trip to the spiritual home of the tifosi in the park Villa Reale to the north of Monza in Lombardy.

With road-racing banned in Britain, necessity dictated the construction of Brooklands as a permanent racing circuit in 1907. On the continent, where road racing faced little restriction and long-distance, temporary Grand Prix circuits evolved out of city-to-city races, the need for a permanent venue was less pressing, and consequently it was 1922 before the construction of Monza as the first permanent circuit in Italy was funded by the Automobile Club of Milan.

In comparison to the previous high-speed bowls of Milwaukee, Brooklands and Indianapolis, Monza's layout more closely resembled an open road course, with a mixture of left and right-hand curves combined with the long straights that remain characteristic of the circuit. From the earliest days Monza was sadly noted for a series of fatal accidents, culminating in the 1928 Italian Grand Prix tragedy, where Emilio Materassi's Talbot swerved off the main straight, vaulted a ditch and fence and claimed the lives of 22 spectators. This accident, the worst in terms of lives lost in Italian motorsport history, resulted in the first alterations to the circuit and the cancellation of the Grand Prix for 1929 and 1930. In 1933 more sadness afflicted the venue when three of Europe's finest drivers, Campari, Borzachhini and Czaykowski, were all lost in two separate accidents.

Having fallen into disrepair during the Second World War, Monza was swiftly refurbished and resumed its position as the Italian Grand Prix venue for the beginning of the Formula One World Championship. With its position in the calendar firmly fixed at the end of the European season, Monza has seen more championship battles, and more world champions crowned, than any other circuit. In 1954, the high speed, steeply-banked oval circuit - Pista di Alta Velocitŕ - was added to replace the previous low-banked loop, and played host to the invitational "Race of Two Worlds" in 1957 and '58, where the cream of American USAC racers would take on the best Europe could offer. In practice the interest from European manufacturers was less than expected, and in any case those who did attend were thoroughly outclassed, Jimmy Bryan and Jim Rathmann in their front-engined Indy roadsters claiming the spoils. The Italian Grand Prix was held on a combined 10km road/oval course in 1955-56 and 1960-61 but following Wolfgang von Trips' fatal accident at the Parabolica in the 1961 event, in which 14 spectators also perished, the race never returned to the banking.

Technological progress ensured ever-increasing speeds through the 1960s and these races featured the legendary Monza "slipstreamers", where packs of cars could travel in convoy down the straights, constantly passing and repassing around the lap. The final slipstreamer race in 1971 is noted for the closest finish in Grand Prix history, with the first five cars across the line abreast separated by only six tenths of a second. This race also held the record for the highest average speed (150.754mph) for 32 years.

For 1972 speeds were contained with the construction of two chicanes - the Rettifilio on the main straight and Ascari. These chicanes were progressively altered over subsequent years and a third, the Della Roggia before Lesmo, was added in 1976. Despite the loss of the slipstreaming spectacle, races at Monza continued to be by turns dramatic and tragic, with Ronnie Peterson's death in a start accident in 1978 followed by Jody Scheckter sealing the title for Ferrari amid the emotional scenes of the passionate tifosi a year later. Although further adjustments were made for safety reasons in 1994 and the first chicane was realigned in 2000, fundamentally the character of the track remains unchanged since '76 and - excluding the chicanes - is little altered from the 88-year-old original.

With the cars running on full throttle for over 80% of the lap and average lap speeds in excess of 150mph, Monza places unique demands on the cars' setup. Very low wing angles feature prominently to minimise drag and increase terminal speeds down the straights, while making the cars a handful in Monza's long fast Lesmo, Ascari and Parabolica curves. Steep kerbs at the chicanes mean a reasonably compliant mechanical setup is ideal for road holding and traction, but the necessary increase in ride height further reduces the downforce available from the underbody devices. Monza remains the ultimate reliability challenge for engine builders, while the brakes are also severely tested - although unlike at e.g. Montreal, there is usually time for the discs to cool somewhat between the biggest stops.

The overall finishing rate at Monza is well above the average for this year's circuits.
The likelihood of a driver-related retirement is low.
Mechanical failures in Italy are also considerably below the average at other current tracks.
Finally, the circuit ranks as below average for first-lap retirements in the past five years.

The Last Five Years


Circuit Ranking (of all 18 circuits)
Finishing Rate

1st Yas Marina 90%
2nd Monza 88%
3rd Valencia 88%
...

Mechanical Failures
...
14th Istanbul 10%
15th Monza 9%
16th Suzuka 8%
...

Driver-related Retirements
...
15th Valencia 5%
16th Monza 4%
17th Sakhir 4%
...

First lap Retirements
...
13th Hockenheim 1.6%
14th Monza 1.0%
15th= Monte Carlo, Shanghai, Singapore, Yas Marina 0.0%
...

Sebastian Vettel returns to the scene of his first victory at the wheel of a Toro Rosso in 2008. Twelve months ago it was crowd favourite Rubens Barrichello celebrating a well-executed victory against the KERS-equipped cars of McLaren and Ferrari. Perhaps this may be a weekend to look at another unexpected winner - only twice in the past nineteen seasons has the winner at Monza gone on to lift the world championship crown. Adrian Sutil qualified second and finished fourth last year, while Heikki Kovalainen has scored points on all three visits to date. Mark Webber's best finish is seventh.

Ferrari naturally hold the upper hand on results at Monza having won half the races there in the past decade. Williams won with BMW power in 2001, while McLaren can count two wins for departed drivers Juan Pablo Montoya in 2005 and Fernando Alonso in 2007 despite a poor finishing record. Red Bull's dire record leaves them below their junior team in the recent standings, while Force India will need to hope that their current drivers are less accident-prone than their predecessors when hoping for a big result.

Current Drivers' Records at Monza


Chassis Records at Monza (since 2000)
Results for Mercedes GP include BAR, Honda and Brawn
Results for Renault include Benetton
Results for BMW Sauber include Sauber
Results for Toro Rosso include Minardi
Results for Red Bull include Jaguar
Results for Force India include Jordan, Midland and Spyker

Engine Records at Monza (since 2000)
Results for Ferrari include Petronas and Acer
Results for Cosworth include Ford

All ranking figures are expressed as a % of total starts.
"Retirements-Acc" are retirements where the reason has been listed as Collision, Accident or Spun Off.