Alvin's Formula One Blog

This is a repost of an excellent team technical analysis of the Italian GP by Matt Somerfield as published on Pitpass recently. Just wanted those who have missed it to have a read. For the full article, please go HERE . The Formula One circus headed into the last European race of the season knowing that the circuit represents a unique challenge. The 3.6 mile Autodromo Nazionale Monza is nestled in parkland and represents a unique challenge for both teams and drivers with only chicanes and a few medium downforce corners breaking up the long, super-fast straights. It therefore comes as no surprise that many teams have Monza specific parts to cater for this low downforce circuit. As I discussed in my previous roundup (Spa) some of the teams took the time to simulate their extremely low downforce rear wing configurations during the free practice sessions. Red Bull With neither of its drivers completing the Italian GP in 2012 the team was eager to continue its current momentum and t...

Not again?! What can I say? It was confirmation that the Red Bull car is fast on fast tracks. Not only are they fast on high downforce tracks, but now they are fast on low downforce tracks as well. That means they are fast on all tracks. Which means I will have to watch The Simpsons more often. It was always going to be a difficult race for the title contenders except Vettel as Alonso started in P5, Hamilton P12 and Raikonnen P11. Vettel romped away at the start as expected, not even a wheel lockup doing anything to his dominance. Raikonnen had his front wing smashed which left lots of debris for Hamilton to step on and get a slow puncture. Both had good race pace but were pushed back into the field due to unnecessary pitstops. Basically Vettel had another of his dominant races where he just cruised from lights to flag. The only interesting part of the race was behind him where fights were on-going and incredible overtaking was taking place. Much of the overtaking was done with...

We are now coming to the last race of the European season at Monza this weekend. Although a simple layout track, Monza is the fastest track on the calendar and will see some great action round the bends plus some crashes at the first turn. Hopefully not. The Italian Grand Prix (Gran Premio d'Italia) is one of the longest running events on the Formula One calendar. The Italian Grand Prix was also one of the inaugural Formula One championship races in 1950, and has been held every year since then. The only other championship race for which this is true is the British Grand Prix, and the only other inaugural F1 races that are still on the calendar are the Monaco Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix. Every Formula One Italian Grand Prix since 1950 has been held at Monza (except in 1980, when it was held at Imola). The Italian Grand Prix counted toward the European Championship from 1935 to 1938. It was designated the European Grand Prix seven times between 1923 and 1967, when this...