So it my job, to try & breathe positivity into the next grand prix. usually my favourite race of the season because whereas last time out Spa is the best location. the passion & emotion of Monza usually is a nice reminder of why i got into the sport. as for the 1st time since 2010 we got to see 1 of the great sights in motorsport with a ferrari victory at monza 12 months ago. not that we will get that this year, much to mattia binotto relief. but not much beats italian national anthem at monza with a packed start straight
Despite it being the 2nd scheduled race of the calendar & the 7th race of expected 17. makes this a very unusual italian gp in a very unusual year as it has never been this early in the calendar, for most of F1 history it would be known for being penultimate race or finale of the season, previous earliest it had been was in 2015. another fascinating part is that with the upcoming trips to Monza Mugello & Imola, F1 will be racing in the same country 3 times for the 1st time since 1982 when they raced in american 3 times at Long Beach, Detroit & Caesars palace. but weirdly not 1 of them was called the USA GP as that was on an eventual 8 year hiatus. but thats F1 for you
we all know about the 2 layouts that monza had, but in 1960 & 1961 they combined both for 10km blast which i anticipate wouldve been an interesting car setup problem to try to make the car fast on both oval & the GP circuit. but 1 driver Phil hill seemingly mastered it because he won in 1960 & then won again in 1961 sealing the F1 championship but winning the F1 title should be 1 of the happiest days of sportsman life. but it would not be happy memory but quite a sorrowful time, so the story begins on the controversial 10km layout used in 1960 & 61. the British teams & their drivers refused to enter the 1960 Italian GP because they considered the banked track too dangerous. issuing an ultimatum saying they would not enter unless the race was exclusively held on the road circuit. it fell upon deaf ears & 1960 event went fine, everyone came home safe but 12 months later dejavu the same concerns were raised, this time the owners reduced the race distance from 500km to 430km. but on lap 1 at the parabolica, tragedy struck as the polesitter & Phil Hill's teammate Wolfgang Von Trips collided with Jim Clark. shot up the grass bank which flung him out of his car killing him instantly & tragically killing 11 spectators. after that unsuprisingly the 10km layout was banned. it was tragic end because after this race Phil Hill instead of celebrating becoming world champion was mourning the loss of his teammate off & on for 3 years. he would never win another race or ever finish in top 10 at monza again
but on this year its going to be interesting return to Monza for Sebastian Vettel. because it be his last Italian gp for Ferrari but the question still remains will it be his last, period. as starting to feel like the racing point pendulum is moving towards sticking instead of twisting. but monza was the start of the vettel story. when he took that great win in rain of monza. which for me was the last great underdog story in F1. but last 2 years havent been kind to him. the 2018 title race unraveled here. when Ferrari had locked out the front row. for me they were huge title favourites & with favourable races upcoming, 1 hand on a 1st drivers titles for 11 years. but instead of playing long game over 53 laps. he made an ambitious move on Hamilton at Roggia chicane he spun to back of the field & 2 weeks hamilton put it 1 an inch perfect qualifying lap at singapore, ferrari never recovered. hamilton went on to win the world title with ease. Then 2019 in hindsight was the end of the road at ferrari for him. you could tell by the team celebrations & love from tifosi that leclerc was getting. that Vettel could've gone on a early flight home. very few would have realised he was absent for a long while. because the torch had been passed at that point
finally im interested to see if the qualifying farce of 2019 will carry on to 2020, when drivers were so focused on getting a slipstream that they forgot the concept of time & ran out of time to do a flying lap in Q3, many embarrassing amateurish moments to pick but Riccardo deliberately outbraking himself into the chicane so people would overtake him only for crawl to end of slip road still at the front of the queue was my pick of laughable moments. in potentially biggest farce to hit F1 since indy 2005
Despite it being the 2nd scheduled race of the calendar & the 7th race of expected 17. makes this a very unusual italian gp in a very unusual year as it has never been this early in the calendar, for most of F1 history it would be known for being penultimate race or finale of the season, previous earliest it had been was in 2015. another fascinating part is that with the upcoming trips to Monza Mugello & Imola, F1 will be racing in the same country 3 times for the 1st time since 1982 when they raced in american 3 times at Long Beach, Detroit & Caesars palace. but weirdly not 1 of them was called the USA GP as that was on an eventual 8 year hiatus. but thats F1 for you
we all know about the 2 layouts that monza had, but in 1960 & 1961 they combined both for 10km blast which i anticipate wouldve been an interesting car setup problem to try to make the car fast on both oval & the GP circuit. but 1 driver Phil hill seemingly mastered it because he won in 1960 & then won again in 1961 sealing the F1 championship but winning the F1 title should be 1 of the happiest days of sportsman life. but it would not be happy memory but quite a sorrowful time, so the story begins on the controversial 10km layout used in 1960 & 61. the British teams & their drivers refused to enter the 1960 Italian GP because they considered the banked track too dangerous. issuing an ultimatum saying they would not enter unless the race was exclusively held on the road circuit. it fell upon deaf ears & 1960 event went fine, everyone came home safe but 12 months later dejavu the same concerns were raised, this time the owners reduced the race distance from 500km to 430km. but on lap 1 at the parabolica, tragedy struck as the polesitter & Phil Hill's teammate Wolfgang Von Trips collided with Jim Clark. shot up the grass bank which flung him out of his car killing him instantly & tragically killing 11 spectators. after that unsuprisingly the 10km layout was banned. it was tragic end because after this race Phil Hill instead of celebrating becoming world champion was mourning the loss of his teammate off & on for 3 years. he would never win another race or ever finish in top 10 at monza again
but on this year its going to be interesting return to Monza for Sebastian Vettel. because it be his last Italian gp for Ferrari but the question still remains will it be his last, period. as starting to feel like the racing point pendulum is moving towards sticking instead of twisting. but monza was the start of the vettel story. when he took that great win in rain of monza. which for me was the last great underdog story in F1. but last 2 years havent been kind to him. the 2018 title race unraveled here. when Ferrari had locked out the front row. for me they were huge title favourites & with favourable races upcoming, 1 hand on a 1st drivers titles for 11 years. but instead of playing long game over 53 laps. he made an ambitious move on Hamilton at Roggia chicane he spun to back of the field & 2 weeks hamilton put it 1 an inch perfect qualifying lap at singapore, ferrari never recovered. hamilton went on to win the world title with ease. Then 2019 in hindsight was the end of the road at ferrari for him. you could tell by the team celebrations & love from tifosi that leclerc was getting. that Vettel could've gone on a early flight home. very few would have realised he was absent for a long while. because the torch had been passed at that point
finally im interested to see if the qualifying farce of 2019 will carry on to 2020, when drivers were so focused on getting a slipstream that they forgot the concept of time & ran out of time to do a flying lap in Q3, many embarrassing amateurish moments to pick but Riccardo deliberately outbraking himself into the chicane so people would overtake him only for crawl to end of slip road still at the front of the queue was my pick of laughable moments. in potentially biggest farce to hit F1 since indy 2005
