Monza

The Autodromo Nazionale Monza sits in the park of the Royal Villa near the city of Monza, north of Milan. It was built between May and July 1922. It was the fourth purpose-built motor racing circuit in the world, after Aspendale, Brooklands and Indianapolis, and is the oldest in mainland Europe. It opened on 3 September 1922, and the first race a week later was the second Italian Grand Prix. The original site had a 4.49 km oval and a 5.5 km road course, which could be joined along a shared straight to form a 10 km circuit. Today the complex has three tracks: the 5.793 km Grand Prix circuit, a 2.405 km junior track and the high-speed oval with its steep banking, which stood unused for a long time and was restored in the 2010s.

Major rebuilding in 1938 and 1939 removed the oval and added two new bends in the south, giving a lap of 6.3 km. After the wartime pause the track was made ready again in 1948. A further overhaul began in 1954 and produced a 5.75 km road course and a new oval. Formula One used the combined 10 km layout in 1955, 1956, 1960 and 1961. In the 1961 race Wolfgang von Trips and Jim Clark collided on the second lap approaching the Parabolica, and von Trips and a number of spectators lost their lives. The oval was not used for Formula One again. A renewed attempt in 1963 failed: the teams protested about the bumpy concrete banking, and the race was run on the road course alone. Chicanes were added later, the Variante del Rettifilo and the Variante Ascari in 1972, with more changes in 1974 and 1976. After 1994 the long bends were tightened to make room for bigger gravel traps, and in 2000 the chicane on the main straight was redesigned. The lap has measured 5.793 km since then.

The Italian Grand Prix has been part of the Formula One World Championship since 1950 and has been held at Monza every year since then, except 1980, when the track was closed for refurbishment. Monza is made up of very long straights and tight chicanes, so braking stability and traction matter a great deal. Formula One cars spend nearly 80 per cent of a lap at full throttle, which puts heavy strain on the engines. There are only six groups of corners: the first two chicanes, the two Lesmos, the Ascari chicane and the Parabolica.