Mark Thompson/Redbull via Getty Images
A quick look at the map of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza circuit, where the Italian Grand Prix takes place this weekend, makes the track seem simple. It’s got a bunch of long straightaways and just a few turns. But a closer look reveals that racing a Formula One car here is far more complicated than it seems. Monza, one of only four circuits from the inaugural 1950 season still used today, pushes drivers to some of their fastest speeds of the year. Those straightaways earn Monza the nickname “Temple of Speed,” but it’s the 11 corners that make getting the most out of the car tough for even the world’s best drivers.
In order to take advantage of the long straights, teams adjust their cars’ front and rear wings to provide less downforce than at any other track. That increases the top speed, but makes it harder to brake: With less force pushing down on the car, slowing down takes longer. By the end of the distances, the cars will see some of their fastest speeds of the year, up to 223 mph. “At those speeds,” says former F1 racer Jean Alesi, “you feel that the car is about to lift off from the track. It’s something that you only find in Monza; sometimes it even feels quite hard to keep the car in a straight line on the straights.”
But the really difficult part is turning after building up all that speed. “You’re coming down to that first chicane at the highest speed an F1 car will reach all year and you’re braking into one of the tightest corners you’ll take all year,” says Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo. “Added to that you’re doing this with the least amount of downforce you’ll have all year—which means the car tends to slide around quite a bit as well as taking longer to stop.”
In the heaviest braking zones, drivers will drop their speed by more than 150 mph in just a couple seconds, enough to generate 4.5 G’s of force. Because the corners are taken so fast, and with so little downforce to keep the cars grounded, cars are much more likely to suffer oversteer (rotating too much, with the rear end sliding out to the side) as well as understeer (just the opposite, when the wheels are turned but the car keeps going straight). There’s a greater risk of locking up the tires while slowing down (F1 regulations don’t allow anti-lock braking), which can lead to flat spots: flattening out part of an otherwise round tire, which slows down the car. These conditions can be adjusted for, especially by talented F1 drivers, but it adds to the overall challenge and charm (at least for the fans) of Monza.
On top of all that, Monza feature especially high curbs on the corners (the orange bits in the above photo) that punish both tires and drivers if they take the corners too sharply. Cutting the corner entirely results in a car traveling over the black and yellow speed bumps, with potentially disastrous results for the underside of the car.
Not all the turns are so tough, but that actually makes the race more complicated. “Every range of cornering speed is covered,” says Alesi, so drivers must continually change their approach throughout each lap. And the low number of corners makes mastering each one critical. On Sunday, the drivers who best time their braking and reapplication of the throttle when exiting each corner (without spinning their tires too much) are likely to come out on top.
This year’s Italian Grand Prix will air in the U.S. on the NBC Sports Network beginning Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. Eastern.
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