Monza may be the cathedral of motorsport, hangout of the tifosi, Ferrari's home track (except Imola would be a lot handier) etc. A place reeking of history, where epic races have been won, legends of the sport have lost their lives and so much of the sport's history has been made. But it's also a grand prix for simpletons.
There's no mistaking that Monza is not a Herman Tilke circuit. Here's how it goes: Start/finish straight, chicane, large curve, chicane, short straight, curve that sounds like a slang name for a lesbian1, short straight, lesbian2, straight, "Woah, we just went under the old track", tricky extended chicane, straight, 180 degree curve that sounds like a hooray Henry who's drunk, start/finish straight.
At Monza you need a car that is fast in a straight line and one that will willingly clamber over the kerbs to give you a fast exit speed. What drivers need to learn is how far they can push their cars over the kerbs without breaking them and how little wing they can get away with.
Sam Michael of the Williams team said earlier in the week that it was a no-brainer using the F-duct at Monza, but Renault said they were still evaluating it despite this.
"I don't really understand why there is an F-duct issue," said Michael. "On the Monza wing we've got, there is a massive drag difference. I don't know why you would never do it. I think everyone will run it."
Whether or not teams decided to run an F-duct is not the most pressing issue for Monza, though. What everybody is really concerned about is the bib test. Following the FIA ramping up tests on flexible wings in Spa, they are going to subject the floors and skid-blocks and floor bibs (the leading edge of the floor underneath the driver) to more rigorous tests.
McLaren have been refreshingly honest on the subject - an approach Red Bull could certainly learn from. Tim Goss, chief engineer on McLaren's MP4-25, acknowledged in a team phone-in this week that the new tests would be much tougher for the teams than the front wing checks in Spa.
"We haven't had to make any modifications to front wings in terms of bodywork flexibility," he said during the Vodafone teleconference. "As far as the 'bib' is concerned, the new off-set load test is challenging and we've had to make minor modifications just to make sure that we're well inside the deflection limits that the FIA are going to set on that. We've modified our bib, and we've taken the opportunity to roll it up into a minor performance upgrade."
Goss believes the Monza changes will have forced the entire pitlane into modifying their cars to make certain they pass the test.
"I think as far as the off-set bib test is concerned, I would expect most teams would probably have had to make changes to comply with that. As far as articulated planks are concerned, there are a number of teams that run floor-skids in multiple pieces and the FIA have tightened up on that to ban articulated skidblocks. I'd imagine other teams would have to do modifications for that.
At Monza, but more pointedly in Japan and Singapore, we shall see from the relative team performances who has lost out from a more rigid enforcement of the rules. The Italian circuit, with its long blasts and tight chicanes, is atypical of what will come for the rest of the year. It has been widely predicted that the Italian GP will be a McLaren race with Ferrari and Force India challenging and Red Bull fighting hard to get into the top five. Past experience has shown us that the Red Bull can conjure up speed in every circumstance, and it is unwise to listen to the protestations of Christian Horner or his view that the Renault engine has the top-end power of a Ford Anglia. It would actually be quite nice to see the top four filled exclusively with silver and scarlet machinery and none of that red/blue/yellow stuff. With the coming tracks said to favour the RBR machinery it would be good for the Championship, too.
Ferrari will start the race rejuvenated by an FIA hearing in Paris that dodged any kind of decision on team orders and effectively gave them carte blanche to tell Felipe Massa that he's slower than Fernando whenever he gets in front. The worst thing of all to come out of this whole rumpus is the focus on Massa's engineer Rob Smedley an out-and-out nice guy if ever there was one. Conversations between Rob and Felipe are the highlight of pits-to-car radio, now he's going to be a lot more guarded in what he says - no more "Felipe baby".
McLaren and possibly Ferrari too will be praying for a dry weekend to make the most of their sheer speed, while Mercedes should be nearer the front than they were at Spa thanks to the grunt of their engine. Going into the Belgian race we had five strong contenders for World Championship glory - thanks to Sebastian Vettel's amateur hour crash with Jenson Button we were down to three, and then Fernando made it two. Should Vettel, Button and Alonso fail to score while their team-mates grab podiums then it really will be down to a Hamilton vs Webber duel.
With only one tyre change anticipated in the race it may not be a knife-edge thriller of a grand prix, but it should give us an insight into what we can expect in the remaining five races.
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