2013 Italian GP: Race Preview

This weekend signals the end of the European season in the F1 year, and thus the beginning of the end of the 2013 season. The last race was held at arguably the best track, and this coming weekend is held at the fastest and perhaps the most exciting track. Autodromo Nazionale Monza is certainly one of the oldest tracks in the world, and has figured on the F1 calendar pretty much consistently for the last 60 years.

Monza consists of very few corners and several long straights/full throttle bends. It has the highest average and attained speed of any F1 track. Full throttle is achieved for nearly 80% of the lap, which is why Monza is one the toughest tracks on engines and has been the reason for the demise of many an engine in the past.

F1 cars are approaching turn one at around 210 miles per hour, some 10 mph faster than the fastest points on most of the other tracks. It was even faster in the past though, with JP Montoya reaching over 230mph in the mid 2000s, but there were fewer restrictions on rev limits and aerodynamics back then.

Coming to this weekend, there are several drivers and teams that would like a good result to try to catch Red Bull and Vettel. Alonso and Ferrari would love a great result here on Ferrari’s home turf, and they will no doubt be pulling out all of the stops to try to make that happen. Alonso will want to continue his great form to try to haul back Vettel from running away with yet another championship.

Raikkonen and Lotus will want to put their issues from Belgium behind them to try to get a good stack of points from Monza. Although the brake issues Kimi suffered at Spa were unavoidable, the significant loss of points – especially when Kimi’s three challengers for the title were all on the podium – was a big knock to take.

Others such as Hamilton and both McLaren drivers will want to try to get another good set of points. The McLaren looks a better car, and Button showed that last race at Spa. Hamilton truly now looks like a potential contender for the title, and Mercedes certainly have the budget to keep up, so can he get a good result here this weekend and reign in the supreme German?

Vettel and Alonso have both won at Monza twice (Monza was Vettel’s first victory in F1, back in 2008 for Toro Rosso in the wet). Hamilton has won it once, which was last year. I think, as all the cars will have the minimum amount of downforce they can get away with, it will be pretty close on the straights. The ‘Bull isn’t known for its straight-line speed, so maybe if another car gets a sniff at either Webber or Vettel, they may be able to do it.

Many drivers on the grid have experience in getting a great lap in qualifying, so pole is anyone’s guess. I think one of the Mercedes cars will get pole, then it’ll be between Hamilton and Vettel for the win, I think. I hope Kimi has a better race this week, and I kind of hope that Vettel doesn’t do well, to make this championship a more exciting and a little less predictable and boring!