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Monza: the cathedral of motorsport. This is a venue which is as old as Formula One itself, playing host to every running of the Italian Grand Prix since 1950, bar of course 1980 where it was taken over to Imola.
Join The Roar from 10pm AEST for updates in what could be a season-defining race.
The passion is fierce at Monza, the Tifosi are always out for the blood of their rivals; being anyone not in a Ferrari.
Unfortunately this season so far, the Tifosi have not had much to cheer about, with both Ferrari drivers seemingly far from winning a race based off the current performance of the F14 T. Seemingly we can expect Fernando Alonso to push at his usual 200%, but the chance for a podium finish is unlikely considering the armaments of the competition.
Nevertheless they can still witness the Mercedes AMG duo go again at each other’s throats after tensions escalated at the previous grand prix in Belgium. Nico Rosberg during the week was ‘sanctioned’ internally by the team who have assured the public that this incident won’t repeat itself.
On paper, with its long straights and minimal corners, Monza is a circuit which will suit any Mercedes-Benz powered car. Without incident, the Silver Arrows theoretically should be able to achieve a one-two finish this weekend. But who will be number one is a completely different question.
Considering all that’s happened to Lewis Hamilton and the amount of remorse he’s received from his own team, there is a certain element of expectation that he could be favoured ahead of Rosberg as a sort of recompense for what happened in Spa.
As mentioned before, the Mercedes-Benz powered machines should have a clear advantage on the straights hence Williams and Valtteri Bottas being the prime contender for a podium finish.
Williams felt that in Belgium their strategy in the race let them down and prevented them from potentially challenging Daniel Ricciardo for the win, so with the power advantage in Monza, Williams could be a force to be reckoned with.
Similarly the other Mercedes-Benz customer teams; McLaren and Force India should be quick here but perhaps not as quick as the Williams. But still competitive enough to be inside the top fix potentially.
Our previous race winner Ricciardo comes to what is effectively his second ‘home’ race with the potential of winning three races in a row. Now don’t count Red Bull out of this one just because they don’t have a Mercedes-Benz engine. Their skinny rear-wing that was run at Spa proved to be quite effective, despite the lack of grunt from the Renault engine.
So there is still a chance of a three-peat for Ricciardo in Italy, provided there are problems with the leaders. And consider too how Monza is Red Bull’s ‘weakest’ circuit, that Sebastian Vettel is a two-time winner in a Red Bull machine, during a dry race.
And finally, Kamui Kobayashi will return to his Caterham car after he was replaced by André Lotterer at the previous grand prix.
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