Just as Belgium has come to herald the return to racing after Formula One’s midseason break, so too has Italy earned a reputation for demarcating the European season with the final leg of the championship.
Autodromo Nazionale Monza opened in 1922, and barely a year has passed in which top-tier motorsport has not raced around the hallowed track – first in its anello di velocità oval configuration, and later in formats similar to that used today.
Only once since the formation of the Formula One World Championship has Monza not hosted an F1 race.
The history is backed up by pandemonium in the grandstands – only the British Grand Prix can rival Monza and the famous Italian tifosi – and the heady combination serves as the sport’s backbone.
If there can be no Formula One without Ferrari, the absence of Monza from the calendar is equally unthinkable.
Yet thinking about a Monza-less season is exactly what Formula One finds itself doing heading into the penultimate race on the circuit’s contract. The race promoter and Bernie Ecclestone have been playing hardball over an extension, leaving the circuit’s future in doubt.
“In order to have a grand prix, you need money. If the money is there, the race takes place,” F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone told Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport last year.
“I don’t think we’ll do another contract, the old one was a disaster for us from the commercial point of view. After 2016, bye-bye.”
The to-ing and fro-ing between Ecclestone and the circuit has persisted ever since. Monza has been played off Azerbaijan and even compatriot circuit Imola to ratchet up pressure to do a deal, eventually prompting the local government to intervene.
“I will meet with Andrea Dall’Orto, the president of [circuit operator] SIAS to close the deal with the mayors of Milan and Monza by the end of August,” Lombardy governor Roberto Maroni said to Gazetto dello Sport last month.
“With a tax-free investment we can close the deal with Ecclestone by early September. The GP has to stay in Monza.”
Though his stance subsequently softened, Bernie seems no more likely to announce the concluding of a new deal.
“I don’t know about Monza at the moment,” he said in Spa. “I hope we don’t lose it but I think there is a good chance we will.”
Talk about pre-race sizzle.
There is famously little room in Formula One for sentimentality. With the exception of Monte Carlo, which is rumoured to have a free race due to its status as a special event, every race on the calendar is subject to similar contractual demands.
The advent of government-backed grands prix in resource-rich nations has put particular emphasis on money, and subsequent increases in the average race price has put pressure on the traditional, usually privately owned, circuits to tip more money into hosting their races.
But more than that, Bernie has a trump card more valuable than a far-flung oil-rich nation or even a rival Italian circuit’s undercut attempts – in 2022, within scope of a new contract, Monza will become the first circuit in the world to turn 100 years old. Cue the cash-register sound effects.
Thus the scene is set for a pivotal decision. Does Formula One back its history, accept a cut to the status quo, and bask in the reflected glory of Monza celebrating its unprecedented milestone, or does it gamble the race for a haul of cash that may end up blowing the money and the race, leaving it with neither?
The gut says the race must be renewed, but then consider this: Formula One was told it could not survive without the French Grand Prix, and then likewise told a season without the German Grand Prix would be a nail in the coffin.
France fell off the calendar in 2008, and this year Germany disappeared, leaving serious question marks about its long-term future. Formula One goes on. Monza is far from guaranteed.
Emotions in Italy will be running high (more so than usual) as negotiations over its future in Formula One precariously continue. It’s a high-stakes game.
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