Less than a week ago the flag was falling on a slightly crazy Belgian GP weekend, where both support races on the Saturday were red flagged and then the F1 on Sunday had all sorts of fun down into the first corner. As a result that debate about cockpit safety has been stirred back into motion, with ideas of fighter plane canopies and cage systems to be introduced as early as 2014. But open cockpit competition defines Formula one and all of the single seater categories in lower and parallel formulae, taking it away would convert the category into something else. Although the idea of fighter pilot canopies probably will look awesome, but does pose a significant access problem if a car ends up upside down. A situation that the GT3 Mercedes SLS has with the gullwing doors, the car has to be flipped before the driver can be accessed, which in itself is a safety hazard. In the US, the Indycar series has placed crash structures behind the rear wheels to stop cars taking off and becoming airborne on impacts. But in the end of the accident at La Source the only immediate consequence is that we won't be seeing Grosjean on the grid, as he is suspended from the race and will be replaced by test driver and former Virgin Racing competitor Jerome D'Ambrosio.
All this taken place before the first wheel spins into motion on another of the immensely historic venues on the calendar, and the maker point for the end of the European season and favourable time zones. The next stop is the famous Italian GP, one of the circuits that has been part of F1 since the very beginning along with Spa, Silverstone and Monaco as the only four original venues. Monza is a stadium of raw power, the fastest track of the season and home of the very vocal Tifosi. Who should be in high spirits considering that Alonso is leading the points in one of those Red machines, which are openly worshipped in Monza. Like Monaco the track has undergone relatively few changes to the layout, with the exception that the insane banking is no longer used round the outside. But over the years the corners have remained, separated now by chicanes due to the speed of modern cars, and retaining immense sense of speed without hedges and trees to catch you when you spin off.
The Track
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| credit to the FIA for the track map |
But there is more to Monza than power, not too much more, but some - the track also has some corners to negotiate, 11 of the things seven of which are part of chicanes put in to counter the speeds. The lap starts off on one of the widest front straights, originally designed to accommodate two streams of cars in parallel for the Florio layout. Where the road course and the oval were part of the same circuit, crossing over on the straight before Ascari. At the end of the straight is the first of the chicanes, the Variante Retifilo the scene of continuous change to the curbing, and a fair few accidents - like Liuzzi's bowling episode. One thing the chicane does offer is plenty of overtaking, and of course hours of slow motion footage of cars shaking with the force of clattering the concrete mountains on the apex.
After the first corner the track curves right through Curva Grande, completely flat out now even with the DRS open in some sessions feeding the cars into the next chicane - Variante Della Roggia. This is another strong overtaking opportunity, as cars can follow in the slipstream through Curva Grande and into the braking zone. There have also been some significant accidents down here too - as is always the case with high speed sections funnelling down into a tight corner. Claiming the life of a track side marshal in 2000 after the two Jordans came together and everyone else piled in, including De La Rosa being launched over the back of a Jaguar and rolling over the cars already in the gravel.
Next are two of the original corners from the layout, the Lesmos each one temping drivers to carry a little more speed than necessary through the apex, catching out Hamilton on year. Following the Lesmos the track descends to cut through the parkland and underneath the banking for the Ascari chicane. Formerly a single sweeping corner the chicane has three components and brings the cars out behind the pits on the run down to the final corner Curva Parabolica. Where the track opens up brilliantly on the exit allowing the driver to carry more speed into the apex as there is room to manage it on the way out. Before unleashing the power on the drive to the line.
There was a little glitch in the filming the video this week, because the controller I use to pilot the blogmobile and other cars ceased to function - just after filming the Spa edition. The temporary replacement - a wired PS3 version has a lot less granularity in the control making driving the current blogmobile rather challenging. I could have given up and put on the traction control or allowed the AI to drive - but no, that's not how things work here at blog HQ, so I have used a different car with a more progressive throttle response instead, from the same year. Driving the champcar blogmobile from last season which didn't do as many races as it deserved anyway, because it is a much nicer virtual car to drive. So here is the track video for the Italian GP.
Well there is something to be said about holding two races with a very compact first corner in quick succession after the drivers have had time to relax over the summer break, it is a recipe for disaster and I can see Monza fulfilling that prophecy. Especially in the support races... But for those who escape any devastation the race could prove to be very interesting because of the characteristic of the circuit, and because the Friday sessions will likely be dry this time the gear ratios can be judged more accurately. This could be one of the tracks where the front runners and the mid-field are not separated by much, like last week in Spa - where Sauber had two cars in the top four on the grid before the crash. Meaning the top teams will not be having their own way this weekend, the likes of Ferrari, Mclaren and Red Bull will be under pressure from Lotus, Williams and Sauber.
There is one notable omission from that list is the Mercedes team, who might be a force early on in the race, and perhaps in qualifying but their tyre management tends to draw them further back towards the end of the race. Forcing an extra stop then planned for both drivers in Spa, so they could be more in contention to fight with the mid-grid teams at the bottom end of the points with Force India and Torro Rosso. This pack will also likely gain a visit from season villain Pastor Maldonado who earned three grid penalties in a single weekend at Spa will be moved so far back on race day he'll be starting in Switzerland. But I do expect him to come through the field - if the car stays intact to challenge for the bottom end of the points. The other unknown is D'Ambrosio, Grosjeans replacement at Lotus, who hasn't raced all season and could be a liability on the run down to turn one.
Then there are those three teams languishing at the back, hopefully the nature of the track will cut the deficit the teams have to those in front, because Monza requires less downforce and the bottom teams have cars with a lower level of downforce on the cars to start off with. The problem they are faced with at the moment is that the team they were catching and occasionally passing have improved their car. Torro Rosso have driven back into the centre of the mid-field leaving Caterham behind in recent races, although they still have a comfortable margin over HRT and Marissia. It is the bottom two teams that have closed in on each other, setting comparable times in qualifying, and this weekend for FP1 only HRT are trying something a little different. Handing Narain's car over to an unknown Chinese driver Ma Qing Hua - possibly hinting at a new line up for 2013 on the back of Chinese investment... who knows.
Blog prediction time.
Of all the mad things that go on here at blog HQ, involving making improperly timed morning toasties, on a faulty machine. I have come to realise that pinning the lid shut with a heavy bottle of flammable cleaning fluid was perhaps not the most intelligent of ideas that have floated across HQ. But these predictions are up there with the strangest additions to this corner of the Internet where I constantly demonstrate I have no idea what I am talking about, but the world needs something to laugh at from time to time.
- Hamilton
- Alonso
- Raikkonen
- Button
- Vettel
- Perez
- Webber
- Rosberg
- Senna
- Di Resta
- McLaren - Hamilton
- Red Bull - Vettel
- Ferrari - Alonso
- Lotus - Raikkonen
- Mercedes - Schumacher
- Sauber - Perez
- Williams - Maldonado (before penalties)
- Force India - Di Resta
- Torro Rosso - Ricciardo
- Caterham - Kovalainen
- Marussia - Glock
- HRT - De La Rosa
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