Grand Prix 2018 Italian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

MONZA.
The Autodromo Nazionale Monza. "The Temple of Speed." I suspect the second name is the Tifosi name for Monza. But with very good reason. It was built for speed, it was incredibly fast, and they have been slowing it down since 1933.
It was built in 1922, financed by the Milan Automobile Club. What they built for their fast circuit, was a banked oval linked to a road circuit. Obviously the racing car of the day that was slung off the oval onto the road section produced high speeds and spectacular viewing. We can only dream what that would look like with a modern F1 car. BUT .. by 1932 it had killed 9 drivers and 27 spectators. Obviously even the most fanatical speed merchant realised that things had to change.They stopped using the oval, introduced the Lesmo curves on the road section and started to introduce stands for the spectators. But then WW11 intervened , and all racing stopped at Monza.

Post war the circuit was totally revamped, and for whatever reason they reintroduced the high speed banked oval. The circuit was fully operational by 1955, and by now it was used by F1. Races were won by the likes of Moss, Hill, Fangio and Brooks. But in 1961 the racing driver Von Tripp and 15 spectators all died in one crash, and F1 abandoned the use of the oval, using only the road circuit. The oval was finally abandoned for all racing in 1969.
However the road circuit itself was still incredibly fast, and in the 1970's the first chicanes were introduced, the Variant del Rettifilo and the Variant Ascari, neither of which had the required effect. In the next few years the efforts to slow the circuit down as the cars got faster, introduced us to the, Vialone, Curve Grande and the della Reggia. All very familiar to us in 2018, but by now 48 years old. Most of them have been altered a little, moved slightly, generally messed around with, and a few more added for good luck, the curve del Serraglio and the Parabolica. Listen to the race commentary you'll hear most of them tripping of someones tongue.
But it remains a fast circuit, not nearly as fast as it once was. The old Oval is gently rotting in the trees behind todays' circuit, perhaps that's where the "The Temple of Speed" is. Todays modern circuit is a "Temple to the Tifosi" (my quote). It's still suited to cars that can go flat out, at high speed, and not fall apart, and we all know who they are. So all those curves and variants have been designed in such a way as to apply the letter of the law without adhering to it. Very Italian.
I'm obviously putting this up before we know what happened at Spa, as we only have a few days before the next round of PQR, and before we know the full outcome of the driver moveathon. Whatever has happened I hope it will throw up some interesting discussion. Most of all, I really hope that Monza and it's history plus the mad Tifosi will give us a good race.
 
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Unless Hamilton throw his car into the wall (or gets shoved into a wall by someone like say ..... Max?) and Seb gets a win which closes the title race up nicely again ;)
 
Unless Hamilton throw his car into the wall (or gets shoved into a wall by someone like say ..... Max?) and Seb gets a win which closes the title race up nicely again ;)
Well, in the days when half the cars wouldn't finish a race....a one race lead in the points 7 races from the end didn't mean as much. But.......it is more significant now. Still the odds of someone going out in the last 7 races is pretty high. Hamilton has finished before 5th in only 1 out of 14 races these season. Vettel has finished below 5th in only 2 out of 14 races. So, 3/28 chance of finishing below 5th....seven races to go, so 80% chance that either Vettel or Hamilton will finish below 5th in one or more races. Needless to say, if it happens to Vettel, Hamilton has the season. If it happens to Hamilton, it almost evens the points.
 
interesting news from Italy, the fastest track on the calendar wants to make it even faster. remove likely the della roggia chicane and reprofile the 2nd Lesmo, as part of what could be a €100 million revamp to mark the track’s centenary in 2022.so it can seal its position as the ‘Temple of Speed’.

Monza considering chicane removal in track revamp

but would they have to use the dispension to use for Monaco & not use distance for this race as well because its already 1hr 17min & you take that chicane out then. you be into 1hr 5mins. so would have add maybe 10laps
 
Monza can actually be boring if you can't overtake which without the DRS is actually quite difficult surprisingly on a circuit with long straights
 
I don't think that by removing La Roggia they would create more overtaking going into braking for Lesmo 1, the braking distance wouldn't be long enough for that, maybe they could allow for some passing in the newly created straight (I wonder if a new straight would mean a closer angle on entry for Lesmo 1).

Re Lesmo 2 I'm biased since the old Lesmo 2 was the last turn that I ever drove in anger in a racing car :facepalm: having said that I think that the plan is silly because you can't recreate the emotions associated with a car taking at high speed a kerb on the outside of a fast turn getting shockingly close to a brick wall, on the one hand I don't think that the risk appetite for such things is there any more and on the other with today's cars they wouldn't be able to ride the kerb like it was done over 20 years ago for the very simple reason that today's cars have far less suspension travel, they'd be bottoming out and spin out of control (it's not a nice place where to spin out of control, I can assure you of that)
 
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Publius Cornelius Scipio I have to say I'm fascinated to know more about your racing career. Sounds like you had a lot of great experiences? Any chance we could convince you to write us an article on it? Would be very welcome and entertaining - especially in the close season when we're all gagging for Motorsport action.
 
Publius Cornelius Scipio I have to say I'm fascinated to know more about your racing career. Sounds like you had a lot of great experiences? Any chance we could convince you to write us an article on it? Would be very welcome and entertaining - especially in the close season when we're all gagging for Motorsport action.

it' nothing to write home about, it lasted only a few years (1988 to 1991) and I never went further than "b" class F3 (previously known as F2000, ie F3 cars at least 1 year old). I wouldn't say that I had a lot of great experiences, I had some experience especially due to the fact that to fund my racing I was doing a lot of testing (when testing wasn't considered very sexy). Being Italian I am rather familiar with Italian tracks and so with Monza, even though when I was a kid my local venue was Imola. When I ran out of money/opportunities and after I did what the "experts" behind the proposed changes for Monza think interesting (= riding the outside kurb at high speed, only to slam head on against the inside wall...) I concentrated on my university studies, like a lot of my fellow competitors did when their careers hit a brick wall (in my sense, literally). In essence a missed chance, and while I had a lot of fun racing go-karts I don't have very fond memories of my few years of single seater racing, with go-karts I was winning rather often and I had no problems, with single seaters I didn't have any backers so no money no good car and no great results. Oh and I was changing teams quite a lot, in essence when someone had a car and no driver I was one of the guys that would normally be called for a few races, normally until someone with either a sponsor or a willing dad (sometimes both) would turn up. notwithstanding the fact that I was known for having no technical knowledge whatsoever (engineers often told me that to be a good test driver you either had to know everything about a car or know absolutely nothing, I was in the second group, my job was to give my impressions and do what I was told, I have never asked for 3 degrees of bandella or moving up 1mm the front of the car) when I now watch a F1 race I think that I can understand what is going on, despite the fact that some of the tricks of the trade that I have learned over the years are now irrelevant (ie it's now impossible to know what engine setting a car is running by watching the colour of the exhaust).

After this moment of nostalgia I better get back to working because it's year end ;)
 
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Sound like a lot to write about to me and anytime you feel like reminiscing then would love to hear more. Thank you for sharing.
 
True Titch but with the technical advancements of the modern F1 and a more modest backing, the risk could be similar to that of other dangerous tracks like Spa or Lemans
 
I can remember DSJ writing about the Italian GP in the days when it was a flat out dash. At the start everyone set off at full tilt and as it progressed the order of the day was slipstreaming, the slightest mistake which a driver made resulting in losing the slip and that was the end of the race.

Unfortunately all too often at high speeds the slightest error would cause a driver to leave the track often resulting in a fireball. Thank goodness that does not happen now, it is a shame though that it could not be done without emasculating the racing.
 
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