ItalianGrandPrix

What You Need To Know

The Italian Grand Prix is one of the longest running events on the motorsport calendar. It formed one of the inaugural Formula 1 World Championship races in 1950 and, alongside the British Grand Prix, is the only event to have featured every year since.

Regarded by many as the embodiment of Formula 1 racing, Monza is a classic arena of speed with an illustrious heritage.

It also holds a heart and soul of its own amongst the passionate Italian fans, who refer to the circuit as 'La Pista Magica', or ‘the magic track’.

Fact File: Italian Grand Prix

• This weekend’s Italian Grand Prix will be the second trial of the ‘Alternative Tyre Allocation’ format. That will see teams have a reduced allocation of 11 sets of tyres: three sets of the Hard compound, and four of the Medium and Soft tyre respectively.

• 77% of lap time is spent at full throttle which equates to 80% of the total distance.

• Despite these impressive numbers, we don’t expect Monza to have the highest top speeds on this year’s calendar. With its high-altitude environment, Mexico typically sees higher maximum speeds and with a nearly 2km long straight, we forecast that Las Vegas will also trump Monza.

• A lap of the circuit requires just 40 gear changes per lap, one of the lowest figures on the calendar. That is due to a large part of the lap is spent in eighth gear on those long straights.

• The Italian GP venue is one of the most power sensitive tracks in F1. Even a modest increase in power can have a sizeable impact on lap time. This is in part due to the long straights, but also due to the low-speed corner exits onto those straights which demand a lot more power in the acceleration zones.

• The high-speed nature means the Italian Grand Prix is often one of the shortest races of the year. If run uninterrupted, it usually takes around one hour and 15 minutes from lights out to the chequered flag.

• Several corners, such as Ascari, are dominated by how well your car can ride the kerbs on entry. If the car is stable, drivers can attack much more easily but a lot of time can be lost if they are unable to do so.

• On exit, the kerbs tend to offer poor traction and a bumpy ride, so drivers sometimes avoid the exit kerbs altogether to get the best run out of the turn.