Italy: Monza Track Guide

By Phil Huff
September 12 2008

Located in a leafy royal park, the 5.793 km Autodromo Nazionale Monza is bursting with motorsport tradition and remains one of the most challenging circuits in the world. Possessing a unique character and ambience, Monza is Formula One's oldest track and despite being altered from its original layout in the interests of safety, it is still the fastest.

Featuring long, high-speed straights interspersed with tight chicanes, and culminating with the famous final sweeping bend 'Parabolica', the Autodromo Nationale Monza is a low-downforce circuit with a smooth track surface.

Because of the pace of the circuit, cars must be set up with the lowest downforce levels possible without causing stability problems under braking. They must also be able to "ride" the Monza curbs effectively and remain well-balanced without too much understeer at high speed. In addition, good traction is important for exiting the revised Rettifilo and Roggia chicanes effectively and braking must be optimised to cope with the very high temperatures generated when drivers slow from top speed to negotiate these low-speed sections.

The high grip and low downforce nature of the circuit suggests that drivers will be on full throttle for a lot of the lap, and that's right. With around 70% of the lap performed with the throttle pedal pressed down all the way, fuel consumption is also high, with Honda's RA107 likely to get through around 2.7kg of fuel each lap. The fuel penalty is around 0.35s a lap for every 10kg of fuel carried, and that's going to make decisions on pit strategy difficult, with track position perhaps being more important than running the fastest possible race.

Overtaking is possible at the first and second chicanes but the fast corners before each passing place make it hard to follow another car closely due to modern aerodynamics and races can become quickly strung out. These days, the slipstreaming manoeuvres seen in the past tend to take place only when cars on two-stop strategies have a significant performance advantage over heavier one-stoppers.

Honda's maiden Grand Prix triumph in Europe came at the 1967 Italian Grand Prix. In September 1967, John Surtees recorded a dramatic victory by a mere 0.2 seconds in what was the fastest race of the 1967 season. In the years since Surtees' famous victory, Honda has recorded five further Italian Grand Prix wins with Nelson Piquet, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. Those six triumphs make Monza - along with Monte Carlo - the track on which Honda has achieved most wins. Adding to the sense of history, Honda's first ever pole position also came at Monza when Surtees set the fastest lap during qualifying for the 1968 Italian Grand Prix - a race he looked all set to win before being forced off the track when avoiding a spinning car.

Last seasons Italian GP saw Jenson Button secure a single point for eighth after starting the race in 10th place. Team mate Rubens Barrichello finished both the race and qualifying two positions behind.