ItalianGrandPrix

Much like Silverstone, Monaco and Spa-Francorchamps, Monza has been a huge part of Formula 1’s history for decades and featured on the original 1950 calendar. It’s been home to the Italian Grand Prix every year since then, apart from in 1980 when Imola hosted, and is nicknamed the 'Temple of Speed'.

It was the third purpose-built race track in the world, after Brooklands in the UK and Indianapolis in the USA, and a current lap stretches over 5.793km with 11 corners. There are plenty of straights to put your foot down, hence why we see so many incredible top speeds, and last season saw Lewis reach 359km/h (223mph) in the speed trap – the fastest of anyone in that race.

The balance of the car is incredibly important here with all the high speeds, and it needs to be perfect. You’ll also see the cars up and down the grid tweaked in order to help with the downforce and drag – such as the addition of skinnier rear wings.

Monza is a low-downforce circuit, and changes are necessary to gain more speed down the straights with less drag. It’s almost the other end of a ‘downforce spectrum’ to somewhere like Monaco, which is high downforce and therefore the rear wings are much larger than normal to help plant you to the ground.

Braking levels are also heavy here, as Lewis and George will try to slow down their cars to make the corners after recording some incredible top speeds. The biggest areas to watch out for are Variante del Rettifilo at Turns 1 and 2 – with the nearby escape road seeing plenty of action over the years – and Variante della Roggia at Turns 4 and 5. This season parts of the circuit have also been resurfaced with new asphalt, which could impact grip levels.

Away from the on-track action, the Autodromo Nazionale Monza always provides a great festival-like atmosphere and attracts some of the most passionate motor racing from around the world.