History of the Temple of Speed, where the Italy GP runs for the 75th time. A single circuit that transformed the F1 into legend, between great passions (mostly rapid Ferrari) and tragedies. Winning here can save a season
Also in 1922, environmental protests were not lacking. At the first blow of Piccone, thrown on February 26 by the pilots Felice and Biagio Nazzaro, Vincenzo Lancia, Antonio Ascari and Ferdinando Minoia, immediately followed an arrest of the construction site for “reasons of artistic, monumental value and landscape conservation”. On the other hand, we were in the middle of a forest, once hunting reserve. And the project was the one for “The Milan circuit in the real park of Monza”, studied by the architect Alfredo Rosselli, carried forward by Arturo Mercanti, former fighter, appointed general commissioner of the Italian Grand Prix. Except that they were other times, that was the first stone of the circuit that would then be called forever “the temple of speed” and to see the third permanent system in the world after Indianapolis and Brooklands, the fastest, ça va sans to say, 110 days. The first of many records. Other than new stage of Inter and Milan. 110 days, from May 3 – when three thousand farmers abandon the fields to work on the construction site and earn as in a year of cultivation of the earth – to July 28, when the pilots Pietro Bordino and Felice Nazzaro, accompanied by the president of Fiat, Giovanni Agnelli, at the helm of their 570, carry out the first test of a circuit that was also to serve for the tests of the nascent car industry. The official inauguration, in the pouring rain, will arrive on August 24th.
Weapon storage
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The myth of Monza was born and, 103 years later, spent in a beating of an eyelamp that has pieces of history of Italy inside (the circuit was deposit of weapons for the German soldiers during the war, Monza advanced a candidacy, not accepted, to host the 1960 Olympics, here the first League flags were seen) and the whole history of F1 in full, here we are. To wait for the 75th edition (on no track it has been more than in the world championship, the Italy GP was always held here except in 1980, when it moved to Imola) of a secular rite that saw its followers sit on the first wooden tribunes under white and red curtains in honor of the city, make holes in the goals to enter the park, cry for the most overflowing tragedies, Piuosi, cook in the Prato seats under the sun, surprising yourself for the most unexpected victories, always get lost in an overwhelming red tide. Collect emotions of distillate f1 in purity. Disappointment, anger, sadness, melancholy, in a long story pre Netflix written in episodes, once a year. In scattered order, choosing from a personal repertoire, the tears of Hakkinen who retired in 1999, those of Schumacher in 2000 at the press conference when he reached Senna’s victories or his pacified smile in 2006 when he announced the happy retreat to give way to Massa (we all agree that the return to Mercedes has never happened, right?).
Events and cheering for Ferrari
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You can be among those who still remember the triumph of Alberto Ascari in 1952 (and, three years later, his death in the test away from the spotlight of a Ferrari, he who was pilot Lancia: today it would be impossible) and the victory of Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966 – the last Italian to cross the finish line first in the GP of Italy -, or be among those who are moved by the Senna who touches with Schleser He gives Ferrari a brace Gerhard Berger-Michele Alboreto a few days after the death of Enzo, 1988, the only race not won by McLaren, or have grown up in the luxury of the Schumacher Kingdom in the early 2000s, or have the most unexpected victories like that of Sebastian Vettel with the Red Toro, in 2008, in the rain, which made him the youngest winner of always in his head, You are more careful, remember that weekend in which, from nearby Cernobbio, Sergio Marchionne closed with inelegance, Montezemolo era, or finally keep fresh the memories of the most recent red triumphs of Fernando Alonso (2010) and Charles Leclerc (2019 and 2024): in any case, if you have been there, you know why Monza is special. And if you have not been something, it is also understood from TV. Because Monza is a pagan pilgrimage that has its stations (the old elevated parabolic today entitled to Alboreto, the Roggia, the Ascari variant, the two curves of Lesmo), which fans repeat as it is done with certain use formations of the past. On the other hand, if in Silverstone there is a pure love for the races, with several teams that have the seat in the surroundings and that the favors of the fans are shared, if in Melbourne or Montreal it is enjoyed for a collective event in a climate of festive chaos, if Montecarlo lives on the absurdity of an oxymoron (missiles forced to go slowly) and in its luxury, in any other part of the world. A passion and such cheering for a single team, as in Monza for Ferrari.
The podium and the red wave
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Beyond the stereotyped statements in the conferences, there is no pilot that is not infected by this special atmosphere. And there is no podium like that of Monza: raised, like a Rockstar stage, on a moving red wave that fills everything and (net of some unpleasant whistle that has been there) ends up embracing even rivals. Fernando Alonso’s selfie in 2010, who remained in the memory, has partially repaid him of the bitterness that he has never won a World Cup in Ferrari. Winning in Monza Save, in part, even the saddest seasons. There are circuits that are part of the Formula 1 calendar for commercial, geographical and political reasons. And then there is Monza. The essence of F.1: speed, unpredictability, passion, and, for many years, also the manifestation of risk in its most violent form. In 1961, Wolfgang von Trips was already called count von crash to survive many accidents, but on the straight before the parabolic he had no escape: he collided with Jim Clark and his Ferrari took flight, destroyed the nets and killed 15 people from the public. In 1970, only a few meters further on, it was Jochen Rindt who in qualifying, due to a break to the braking system, urged by the discharge configuration designed for Monza, crashed into the guardrail, the wheel run into a hole, perhaps carved out of the fans to enter the circuit, dive and hit him. Rindt died in an ambulance; He had arrived in Monza at the top of the World Cup and remained such until the end of the championship, the only posthumous winner of the history of F.1. And then 1978, the carambola of cars that also involved the innocent Riccardo Patrese and Vittorio Brambilla (who remained in a coma a few days), the stake, a mix of impercy and inefficiency of the rescue, which caused the death of the Swedish Ronnie Peterson (already three times winner in Monza, for him George Harrison wrote for an Ambolia, also involved in a coma. Day after when he was hospitalized at Niguarda and seemed to have faded. They were so, terrible times. The consequences of the crashes made the concept of speed tragically plastic. To drive among these (few) curves, the stables have always set up special single -seater, with the lowest aerodynamic load of the year, a specific one that was at the anti -Podi compared to Montecarlo. The restrictions of the new rules, with the budget budget, force to settle for compromises that can work on different slopes, but the pilots’ feeling has not changed much.
The fastest circuit
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Temple of the speed, it was said: here – the year 2003 ran, at the helm of Ferrari there was Michael Schumacher -, there was the highest average speed of always reached in the race (247.586 km/h), always here was the fastest round in qualifying (264.362 km/h), it was 2020, on the Mercedes there was a certain Lewis Hamilton who will experience what it means to be a pilot. Ferrari in Monza. If there is a right place to change the course of its history in red, so far disappointing, this is this. He has already won five times, on the other hand. Think what photos from the podium.
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