Race starts at 3:10 pm in Italy/9:10 pm in Malaysia
The compressed schedule means that just a week has been separating many of the first seven rounds of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship. Last week, the drivers raced at Spa in Belgium and after that, the teams travelled 800 kms southeast to Monza in Italy for this weekend’s 2020 Italian Grand Prix. The eighth round is at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, a 98-year old circuit that has hosted F1 rounds 70 times.
Monza – nicknamed ‘The Temple of Speed’ – is all about pace, and some of the highest speeds of each season are reached as the cars race along the long straights and high speeds are possible at many of the 11 corners. The maximum speed cars will reach at Monza is around 336 km/h, the third highest in F1 – behind Paul Ricard (340 km/h) and Mexico City (350 km/h).
Just over 77% of the lap time and 84% of the lap distance are taken at full throttle. Because a large chunk of driving at Monza is spent in eighth gear, very few gear changes take place over the course of the lap compared to other tracks. Despite the focus on outright speed, cornering velocities are also important to getting good lap times. Traction out of the three chicanes is also vital.
Low downforce often features as a talking point every year at Monza and set-ups aim at getting it as low as possible to minimize drag on the straights. For this reason, good mechanical grip is very important.
For this round, Pirelli has brought to Monza a selection from the middle of its range of tyres. The C2 compound will feature as the white-banded hard tyres, while the C3 will be the mediums and C4 will be the red-banded soft tyres.
The championship positions
Having won 5 out of the 7 races run so far, Lewis Hamilton has a strong lead which is 47 points ahead of the closest rival, Max Verstappen. Valtteri Bottas is just 3 points behind Verstappen so expect him to be pushing hard to get past the Dutch Red Bull Racing driver. Sixth place in Belgium has moved Alexander Albon to fourth place, ahead of Charles Leclerc who was the winner of last year’s Italian GP.
Among the Constructors, Mercedes-AMG continues to extend its lead with each round. Its two drivers have already contributed a total of 264 points, comfortably ahead of Reb Bull racing which has 158 points. After that, there’s close contention between the next two constructors – McLaren and BWT Racing Point – with a separation of just 2 points.
On the historical side, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have won the most times at Monza, each having 5 wins to his name. Schumacher’s victories were all with Ferrari which is also the team with the most number of victories (19), followed by McLaren and Mercedes.
Departure of the Williams family
The Italian Grand Prix will be a sad one for the Williams team and its fans. Having been sold to Dorilton Capital, a private investment firm in the USA, the Williams family will cease to be involved in the team that was established by Sir Frank Williams in 1977. The team has been managed by Williams’ daughter, Claire, since 2013.
The Williams team has had an impressive history with 7 Drivers’ titles and 9 Constructors’ championships. It’s the end of an era for the family-owned team and the decision to sell it off has been a difficult one, but necessary to ensure its survival. Under new ownership, it is expected that the team will have a secure long-term future in the sport.
