2006 ITALIAN GRAND PRIX PREVIEW
The Formula One fraternity arrives in Italy for the final
race of the European season to the great Grand Prix venue
of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, the spiritual home of Italian
motor racing, located in the outskirts of Milan.
The Italian Grand Prix has been held every year since the
inception of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1950, it
is the only race alongside the British Grand Prix to which
this applies.
Grand Prix racing in Italy began in 1921 on the 17.3km circuit
in Montichiari near Brescia. The following year, the decision
was made to build a permanent race track in the Villa Reale
Park, Monza. The Milan Automobile Club started work on 15th
May 1922 and was completed in 110 days. The circuit opened
on 3rd September and a week later was inaugurated with its
first Italian Grand Prix.
The original Monza track incorporated long banked sections,
but safety concerns saw significant modifications, which included
the removal of the banking from the circuit and the inclusion
of a number of chicanes. McLaren has won the Italian Grand
Prix on eight occasions, with the most recent two victories
secured by Team McLaren Mercedes drivers David Coulthard in
1997 and Juan Pablo Montoya in 2005.
Since the Turkish Grand Prix at the Istanbul Park, Team McLaren
Mercedes has been testing at the Monza circuit with Pedro
de la Rosa and Gary Paffett in preparation for the race.
KIMI RAIKKONEN
“Monza is a great track, it is all about speed but not
just on the straights. It has some fantastic corners such
as Parabolica that are flat out and you really have to push
the car. Parabolica is a really important part of the track,
because it takes you back out on to the long start and finish
straight, and so you have to keep your speed as high as possible
through it. The track is also really hard on the cars, with
the bumps and the long straights at full throttle. You tend
to use the kerbs quite a lot and so have a slightly softer
set-up so the car rides well over them. After my retirement
from the Turkish race, my back was a bit sore, so we decided
that I would rest to get properly fit for this race rather
than test, but I am totally fine, there are no problems from
the incident and I am looking forward to getting back in the
car. It has been feeling really strong recently, so I hope
we can have more of a race in Monza than in Istanbul.”
PEDRO DE LA ROSA
“We had a good test last week in Monza, Gary and I completed
over 1500km and were able to work through a lot of the preparations
for the race this weekend. This included tyre selection with
Michelin, proving aero packages and set-up work. The latter
is always quite tricky here, so I had a big focus on this
at the test. Monza demands high speed and braking stability,
so this also has to be taken into account. The track surface
at Monza has been re-laid recently, and it now has quite different
characteristics to the previous surface, which of course has
an effect on tyre performance and wear, and we also covered
this in detail at the test. It was our first time on the track
with the V8 engines, and the top speeds are around the 340km/h
mark, which is not significantly less than last year. ”
MARTIN WHITMARSH, CEO FORMULA 1, TEAM McLAREN MERCEDES
“The Italian Grand Prix this weekend marks the end of
the 2006 European season, and all at Team McLaren Mercedes
would like to leave Europe on a high. The race team arrives
in northern Italy following an encouraging resumption of testing
at Monza last week, where the test team completed a solid
two day session, and we are now looking forward to racing
the cars in anger on the circuit. Monza sees us run with the
lowest downforce configuration of the year, to allow us to
maximize speed on the long stretches of full throttle around
the Italian track. We use a bespoke aero package for the race,
with specific front and rear wings and the removal of the
winglets from the top body, which the test team ran with Pedro
and Gary last week at Monza with some positive results.”
NORBERT HAUG, VICE PRESIDENT, MERCEDES-BENZ MOTORSPORT
“Compared to the other circuits on the Formula 1 calendar
the Monza track is the most untypical one. Nevertheless the
Italian Grand Prix on this circuit is a classic and the race
is the one in which the highest average speeds are recorded.
In 2006 about 240 kph on average over the race distance should
be attained, and also this year top speeds of more than 340
kph can be expected on the start-finish straight. This will
be only about 25 kph less than those of September 2005 despite
the fact that this year the V8 engines have about 200hp less
than last year's V10s. Three quarters of the lap will be run
under full throttle in a Formula 1 car, which is the highest
percentage achieved during the race season and generates the
highest strain on the engines. The cars are traditionally
set up for the lowest downforce which even a non specialist
can realize from the angle of the front and rear wings. In
spite of this the braking and turning in characteristics and
the skilled use of the kerbs are decisive factors to produce
a good lap time. There are no prizes for those who are only
fast in a straight line.”
USEFUL STATISTICS
Italian Grand Prix McLaren Team McLaren Mercedes Kimi Pedro
Circuit length 5.793 km Race starts 610 200 101 68
3.600 miles Race wins 148 44 9 -
Race distance 306.702 km Pole Positions 124 45 10 -
190.596 miles Points 3130.5 1223 330 24
Laps 53 Podiums 392 139 35 1
Inaugural race 1950 Fastest Laps 129 59 18 1
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