2024 Italian Grand Prix

The Monza track is one of five still existing racing tracks which hosted Formula One races in its maiden world championship season in 1950 along with Monaco, Silverstone, Spa and Indianapolis. Ever since that time, Monza has hosted F1 Grand Prix races every year, with the exception of the year 1980.

After England’s Brooklands Motor Circuit and the United States’ Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Autodromo di Monza is the 3^rd oldest racing circuit in the entire world. Construction of the racing circuit near Milan began in January 1922 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Milan Automobile Club, with several Italian car manufacturers showing their support in the construction of a permanent track for both testing and racing.

The construction of the track was completed in record time of 110 days and the track was officially opened on September 3rd, 1922. The circuit had a combination of a 3.5 mile road track and 2.8 mile high-speed oval, which featured two banked curves that made the top speed of 118 miles per hour possible. Two different parts of the circuit were linked by two straights, each 3500 feet long.

In the history of Monza, the most serious racing accident took place in 1928, when an unfortunate racing mishap resulted to the death of 29 people, including a pro driver and 28 spectators attending the event. As a result, the Italian Grand Prix was temporarily confined to the high-speed loop layout until 1932. Moving forward, 1993 is another tragic year in the world of circuit racing as the event saw three deaths, prompting organizers to change the layout and add two extra chicanes for safety.

One of the major upgrades took place between 1938 and 1939, when the Milan Automobile Club (the owner) constructed new stands, resurfaced the Formula 1 Monza track and added two new bends. The new layout had a lap of almost 4 miles, which was in use till 1954. Because of World War 2, racing at the track was suspended until 1948, causing significant portions of the circuit to degrade in quality due to the lack of maintenance. But in 1948, Monza underwent renovations that allowed for the first Italian Grand Prix since the war ended. It was held in October that year.

Work on the circuit resumed again in 1954, with revamping the track being the primary goal. The new track had 3.5 miles with an added high-speed oval of 2.6 miles. The track layout was extensively updated to enable multiple cars to run parallel with each other and also to accommodate more spectators and teams. The Race of Two Worlds in 1957 and 1958 was one of the Formula One Circuit Italy’s highlights, when Formula One cars from Europe raced against America’s finest. The new circuit had separate areas for spectators. The central grandstand had a capacity of 3,000 seats and there were six additional grandstands with 1,000 seats each.

The most safety conscious years started after the death of Ayrton Senna in 1994. Monza has gone through significant change over the years as the Grand Prix of Italy became more and more popular.

The track was used for the Italian Grand Prix until 1961 with the 6.2 mile layout used in 1955, 1956, 1960 and 1961. The winners of those races were Sterling Moss (three times), Phil Hill (two times), Juan Manuel Fangio and Tony Brooks.

The 1961 Italian Grand Prix, with the tragic death of the Ferrari driver Wolfgang Von Trips and 15 spectators on the straight before one of the banked curves, marked the end of the high-speed track usage in the Formula One Grand Prix and other single-seater races.

The track was again used for the 1000 km Monza race of GT cars, sports cars, and prototypes. And in 1969, the final race was held on the longest Monza layout. After that, all races were removed to the 4 mile road course. Although the high-speed banking was retired, they are still there to see as a reminder to the glorious history of racing at Monza.

Despite the lack of high-speed banking in the track, the Monza circuit was still exceptionally fast. Because of the increasing performances of the cars and higher speeds, it became necessary to reconstruct the circuit to make racing safer.

Two chicanes were built in 1972 at the entrance to the fastest curves on the track – the Curva Grande at the end of the Start/Finish straight and the Ascari curve. The chicanes were named Variante Ascari and Variante Del Retifilo, but they soon became ineffective and were then reconstructed in 1976. Another chicane was added before the Lesmo corner. The new layout of the track was 3.6 miles long.

With technology improving and speeds still increasing, the track was modified again in 1979, with added curbs, extended run-off areas, and tire barriers improved. The infrastructure was also modernized with further safety improvements during the 1980s.

For the first and only time in the race’s history, the Italian Grand Prix was held outside Monza in 1980. Then in 1981, Formula One was back again in Monza, but with the addition of other events and series such as the Formula 3000 and the 1000 km of Monza were added.

In 1989, a major renovation of the pitlane, garages and paddock complex began, with lots of new technologies used. A few years later, the next focus was to increase safety standards, especially after Ayrton Senna’s death at Imola in 1994. All safety modifications shortened the track to 3.5 miles. The final change of the configuration and track layout happened in 2000, when the redesign of some curves resulted with the current track length of 3.6 miles.

The record holder in the current configuration of the track, with the official best lap time 1 minute 21.046s, is Rubens Barrichello. He set the record lap time driving the Ferrari F2004 in the 2004 Italian Grand Prix. During the qualifying, Barrichello made a lap 1m 20.089s, but Juan Montoya was even faster in the first qualifying session, and he lapped Monza with an average speed of 262.242 km/h, which is the fastest ever qualifying lap in the history of Formula One.

The feature that makes Monza really special is that it is an extremely fast circuit with tons of straights and fast corners, along with high average speeds. It was a place conceived for the cars and the drivers who want to achieve their full potential and reach high speeds without having to do much braking. That is the reason why racing in Monza is a big deal for both the drivers and the audience.

The high speed of the circuit has one huge downside, however, because Monza is regarded as one of the most dangerous tracks in the planet. Monza managed to take the lives of one track marshal, 35 spectators, and 52 drivers in a span of 78 years, from 1922 to 2000. The younger years of the track were especially deadly as there were instances when multiple drivers lost their lives in a single race. The most notable drivers who lost their lives at Monza were Ascari (1955), Von Trips (1961), Rindt (1970) and Peterson (1978).

The list of drivers who managed to bag victories at Monza is impressive and it also gives us a rundown of the motorsport’s rich history. A total of 51 drivers won the Italian Grand Prix from 1922 until 2018, with the list almost comprising of all world champions – from Nino Farina, the first world champion, to Lewis Hamilton, the current champion.

Michael Schumacher, who scored victories in 1996, 1998, 2003, 2006, and 2009, is the record holder at Monza with five victories – each of which was achieved with Ferrari. With 19 Grand Prix victories, the esteemed Italian manufacturer is the most successful brand at Monza. Coming second is McLaren with 10 wins, followed by Alfa Romeo with 8 victories.

Though Monza is widely known as the venue of Formula One races, other notable races from other series were also held there. The race with the longest tradition was the 1000 km of Monza, the endurance race which was a part of various series. On the 6.3-km circuit, the 392-km-long race Coppa Inter-Europa was first held in 1949. The race increased in size to 1,000 kilometers in 1954 and transferred to the 10 km circuit in 1956.

Despite the race having many different variations in both duration and longevity, it remained as the primary endurance race in Italy. Similar to Formula One, there were a lot of legendary drivers and cars that dominated the Monza circuit. Some of the famous winners were mike Hawthorne, John Surtees, Pedro Rodriguez, Arturo Merzario, Mario Andretti, Jochen Mass, Derek Bell, and many others. Ten drivers were the multiple winners, but only one scored three wins – Jackie Ickx. In 2008, the final 1000 km race was held as a part of the Le Mans Series.