It is a fact that only once has this beautiful circuit been absent from the World Championship calendar; that was 1980, when cousin Imola made a first appearance. It is also a fact that Monza remains, despite the myriad chicanes and modifications over the years, the fastest circuit on the calendar today.
It is a lesser known, but possibly more astonishing, fact that when the parkland circuit staged its first Grand Prix way back in 1922, a quarter of all the cars in Italy at that time attended! They also came on bicycles, on foot, on buses, trams, trains, anyway they could to witness this spectacle of speed and sound. And they still come today.
What is it about this place that is so revered? Is it the wonderful startline stretch down to the Rettifilio Variante, perhaps the finest 'chicane' in Formula one? Is it the legendary Lesmo bends, or the daunting Parabolica? Or is it the ghosts evoked by the disused banking, a relic of days gone by? Whatever the reason it is clear there is nowhere else like Monza. Or the 'tifosi'!
Of all the World's fans the Italians are among the most knowledgeable. Their love of Ferrari is legendary, but it does not blind them. When the cars from Maranello are winning Monza is a carnival of colour (red, of course...) but when they are not the fans make their dissatisfaction known.
Television pictures over the years have shown spectators streaming out of the Royal Park in protest at a Ferrari failure, or pouring on to the track in celebration - there seems to be no in-between. And let us be certain of one thing - it is the cars, the red cars with the Prancing Horse, that receive the adoration, not the drivers.
Riccardo Patrese, Italian to the core, famously merited a standing ovation for retiring from the lead one year. He was in a Brabham. That was one less car in front of the red ones. The fact that a local boy was at the wheel meant nothing.
The Ferrari adoration is perhaps understandable when one considers the history of Italian drivers in the World Championship.
Alberto Ascari, a man among the greatest of greats, memorably won back-to-back championships in 1952 and 1953, in a Ferrari of course, and since then....nothing! That's not to say there have not been any notable Italian Grand Prix drivers, there have been many, but no more World Champions. So it was left to the 'Scuderia' to provide the glory.
And provide it they did. From those glory days of Ascari dominance, through the early 1960's and the beautiful 'Shark Nose' cars of Phil Hill and 'Taffy' von Trips, the '70s era of the great Niki Lauda, and the legendary Gilles Villeneuve hustling his ill-handling car to unbelieveable victories in the 1980's, we arrived at the dominance of the Schumacher era of late. But this is not a Ferrari history; let's talk about those drivers from this beautiful country, those who promised so much yet never quite delivered.
Following Ascari's last win in 1953, it was to be a long time before an Italian stood on the top step of the podium again. Luigi Musso holds that distinction, having handed his car to team-leader Juan-Manuel Fangio in the Argentine Grand Prix of 1956.
For the next 'true' Italian victor we have to wait until 1961 and the debutant Giancarlo Baghetti at the French Grand Prix, still the only man to have won his first Grand Prix. Driving a Ferrari, of course. But it was to be his only win.Between these some had shown promise - the veteran Musso clinching a pair of second places in 1957, the young and very talented Eugenio Castellotti rightly hailed as the new national hero before his untimely and tragic death in 1957.
1964 saw victory in Austria for the latest rising star, Lorenzo Bandini. Much was expected of this young man, and he duly delivered only to become another victim of the tragic 1960's, an era when many great talents were lost. Ludovicio Scarfiotti sprung a surprise win for the 'home' team at Monza in 1964 (he, too, would lose his life during the 1960's) and there followed a number of barren years where Italian drivers are concerned.
This led to one of the many myths that surround Ferrari, the one that says that the Scuderia do not employ Italian drivers. Untrue, of course, as the likes of Bandini, Scarfiotti, Castellotti and Musso among others confirm. The fact is that there simply were not the drivers emerging from Italy during this time.
Vittorio Brambilla 'the Monza Gorilla' ended the drought when he took his March across the line first in the Austrian Grand Prix in 1975. That he then crashed while celebrating what was to be his sole victory has gone down in GP legend.
The next Italian rising star would be Patrese, who burst on to the scene in 1977, rapidly got everybody's backs up, and was promptly banned for a couple of races for dangerous driving. That he was blamed, erroneously and disgracefully by peers who should have known better, for the terrible start-line accident that led to the death of Ronnie Peterson at Monza 1978, is one of the more regrettable episodes in Formula One history.
Patrese eventually won his first race at Monaco in 1982, a race now remembered as one that no-one seemed to want to win - in the space of the final two laps there were four different leaders. Riccardo's career is well known and he remains one of the most popular men in the history of the sport.
The 1980's produced a sudden influx of young Italian talent. Some who should have won but didn't - Bruno Giacomelli and Andrea de Cesaris spring to mind. Both were quick, de Cesaris wayward but occasionally brilliant. One who won but should have done more - the debonair Elio de Angelis, who promised much but was cut down in his prime in a terrible accident while testing in 1985. And spare a thought for young Riccardo Paletti, killed in an horrific start-line accident in Canada 1982, his Osella slamming into the back of another car and burning for what seemed like ages with the poor lad still in it. It was only his second race. He was 23.
Perhaps the best of all was Michele Alboreto, one whom many believed should have been World Champion, an Italian driver quite unlike any Italian driver, smooth and precise, cool and calm, a great driver in an era of great drivers.
Or was it Alessandro Nannini, destined for great things when involved in a helicopter crash that lost him an arm? Or was it Pier-Luigi Martini, a driver of great talent who, by no fault of his own, was never picked up by one of the top teams? Or, later still, what would Allessandro Zanardi have done had things turned out differently?
Without wanting to leave anyone out of this potted history (and I hereby apologise to Beppe Gabbiani, Mauro Baldi and Ivan Capelli among others) to write of every Italian driver from 1980 onwards would warrant a book, not a mere article. Needless to say from then, until now, there have been many worthy of the cause.
And what of Ferrari, the great hope of the 'tifosi'? What will the devoted Italian fans make of the relatively lacklustre performance this year? Traditionally, Monza ticket sales are low when Maranello's finest are not at the top of the tree.
Traditionally, also, Ferrari tend to 'come back' at their spiritual home. Stories abound of special 'four litre' engines finding their way into the back of the red cars (in the days when the regulations stipulated three litres, no more...). Legends remain of races past, such as the incredible five car finish of 1971, or the miraculous 1988 one-two result snatched from the jaws of McLaren in the wake of the death of 'The Old Man', the great Enzo Ferrari.
If Ferrari are to spring a surprise this season it has to be here.
Monza - the stuff of legends.
Written by 3 on Tue, 30 Aug 2005 17:45:00
[ Print View ][ E-Mail Article ]
