The Italian Grand Prix at Monza. A short phrase that encapsulates over 90 years of racing thoroughbred cars through the confines of a Royal Park, the sound of racing engines reverberating through the trees, speeds reaching stratospheric numbers and passionate italian fans devouring every moment, especially when there’s a red car on track. Ferrari is a national institution, and the politics and intrigues of what’s happening at the team fill pages and pages of newspapers and magazines. They arrive at their home race on the back foot; not a single win to their credit in 2016 despite winning three last year, a depleted technical team now that James Allison is no longer present, and a weekend to forget in Spa when potential podium finishes were eradicated by a first corner clash.
Italy wants answers to Ferrari’s predicament, and Monza is a place where they always step up. They have won more races here than any other team has achieved at any individual circuit in the world. Apart from 2014 when Alonso suffered his first mechanical retirement in four and a half years at the team, there’s been a Ferrari driver on the podium since the wet race in 2008 when Vettel took his first ever win for Toro Rosso. You have to think that this race is always in the back of the mind for their designers and engineers; when compromises for all of the season’s different circuits are taken into account, surely a little more value is placed on this one which has unique requirements in terms of low drag and pure straight line speed. Expect to see Raikkonen and Vettel working together in qualifying, slipstreaming each other to maximise those speeds. The relationship they have, and perhaps a large part of the decision to retain Kimi, allows them to do this effectively as we saw last year, whereas the concept of mutual benefit in a similar fashion at Mercedes is entirely alien.
Mind you, everyone will have to do something special to prevent Hamilton winning this race if the record books are anything to go by. He has outqualified Rosberg in each of the last two years, and has taken a total of 4 poles just one short of the record held jointly by Senna and Fangio; not a bad club to be a member of. He adores racing in Italy, where much of his teenage life was spent competing against like-minded racers in karts, and he savours the challenge of a low downforce car dancing under braking and skipping over the kerbs at the crucial chicanes. This place is his domain and now that he’s got plenty of power units at his disposal, he’s ready to stretch out that championship lead. He won five in a row from this point in 2015 and four out of five on his way to the title last year. Having minimised the loss of points in Spa, he has a tremendous position from which to launch that crucial phase.
And what of the others? Well, Hulkenberg missed out on a podium once again at Spa, but this could be another good weekend for Force India who seem to be able to cope with the increased tyre pressures demanded by Pirelli somewhat more comfortably than Williams. Manor Racing will also be interesting to watch, as their low drag car should be in its element. Wehrlein was an early retirement last week but Ocon put in a decent debut and this track presents more opportunity than most. And of course, after the events of Spa, everyone will be watching Max Verstappen’s antics even more closely. It’s time to show that he doesn’t need to employ questionable tactics to keep people behind; he has enough talent to do the job staying the correct side of the dividing line between aggressive and outrageous.
Italy wants answers to Ferrari’s predicament, and Monza is a place where they always step up. They have won more races here than any other team has achieved at any individual circuit in the world. Apart from 2014 when Alonso suffered his first mechanical retirement in four and a half years at the team, there’s been a Ferrari driver on the podium since the wet race in 2008 when Vettel took his first ever win for Toro Rosso. You have to think that this race is always in the back of the mind for their designers and engineers; when compromises for all of the season’s different circuits are taken into account, surely a little more value is placed on this one which has unique requirements in terms of low drag and pure straight line speed. Expect to see Raikkonen and Vettel working together in qualifying, slipstreaming each other to maximise those speeds. The relationship they have, and perhaps a large part of the decision to retain Kimi, allows them to do this effectively as we saw last year, whereas the concept of mutual benefit in a similar fashion at Mercedes is entirely alien.
Mind you, everyone will have to do something special to prevent Hamilton winning this race if the record books are anything to go by. He has outqualified Rosberg in each of the last two years, and has taken a total of 4 poles just one short of the record held jointly by Senna and Fangio; not a bad club to be a member of. He adores racing in Italy, where much of his teenage life was spent competing against like-minded racers in karts, and he savours the challenge of a low downforce car dancing under braking and skipping over the kerbs at the crucial chicanes. This place is his domain and now that he’s got plenty of power units at his disposal, he’s ready to stretch out that championship lead. He won five in a row from this point in 2015 and four out of five on his way to the title last year. Having minimised the loss of points in Spa, he has a tremendous position from which to launch that crucial phase.
And what of the others? Well, Hulkenberg missed out on a podium once again at Spa, but this could be another good weekend for Force India who seem to be able to cope with the increased tyre pressures demanded by Pirelli somewhat more comfortably than Williams. Manor Racing will also be interesting to watch, as their low drag car should be in its element. Wehrlein was an early retirement last week but Ocon put in a decent debut and this track presents more opportunity than most. And of course, after the events of Spa, everyone will be watching Max Verstappen’s antics even more closely. It’s time to show that he doesn’t need to employ questionable tactics to keep people behind; he has enough talent to do the job staying the correct side of the dividing line between aggressive and outrageous.