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29 March 2024

F1: Ferrari's Alonso the main man at Monza

Published
By Reuters

Fernando Alonso is the man who can make the red wave of Ferrari fans truly happy at Monza's 'Pista Magica', Italy's revered cathedral of speed that is also Formula One's fastest circuit, this weekend.

A Ferrari one-two would be a dream scenario for the 'tifosi', with Brazilian Felipe Massa needing his best result in almost a year for that to happen, but a win for Alonso in the final European round of the season is required - and entirely possible.

With eight races remaining, the Spaniard is 46 points behind Red Bull's triple world champion and overall leader Sebastian Vettel with some of the German's most dominant tracks coming up in Asia and the Middle East.

Monza is a special place for Vettel, having taking his first Formula One win there with tiny Toro Rosso in 2008, but Red Bull have triumphed there only once - in 2011 - and team principal Christian Horner spoke in Belgium of it as a potential 'Achilles Heel' for his car.

"We don't expect, maybe, to be that strong (at Monza) but let's see," Vettel said after winning at Spa last month for his fifth victory of the year.

There is more optimism - and burden of expectation - at Ferrari, the most successful constructor by far at their home circuit with 18 wins over the years compared to McLaren's 10.

Alonso won in 2010, and was third in 2011 and 2012. He also won with McLaren in 2007 and was second in 2005 with Renault.

Sunday's race, at a circuit haunted by the ghosts of history with the decaying 1950s banking quietly crumbling beyond the modern track, will sound a last post for Formula One's V8 engine in Europe and locals would argue that a win for the sport's oldest and most successful team would be a fitting farewell.

"Its an important weekend for us, for the team," agreed Alonso, who will have to be at his very best to line up on the front row for the first time in 22 races and more than a year of trying.

"Last year we were very close to repeat the victory that we got also in 2010, so we arrive fully motivated again and in Monza we would like to give some smiles and some satisfaction to the tifosi and we will try our best," said the double champion.

MASSA MOTIVATION


Massa, whose future is under more scrutiny now that Red Bull have decided their 2014 line-up, has made only one appearance on the podium this season - a third in Spain - and has not won a race since 2008.

There will be no shortage of motivation for Massa, even without the pressure of fighting to keep his job, in a race without Italian drivers.

"I am Brazilian but my family came from Italy so this is something of a home race as I have an Italian passport and our family has something of an Italian lifestyle," he told the Ferrari website (www.ferrari.com) this week.

"This all adds up to a very special race for me."

Toro Rosso's Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who will be Vettel's team mate at Red Bull next season as replacement for departing compatriot Mark Webber, also has an Italian passport but cannot count on too much support even if he currently races for an Italian-based team.

The Monza fans are famed for their passion as well as their complete devotion to all-things Ferrari, their enthusiasm more like a soccer crowd venting its ire at anyone on the podium not dressed in red.

Lewis Hamilton was booed by them last year when he won for McLaren, with Ferrari-powered cars second, third and fourth, and cannot expect much to have changed should he return triumphant with Mercedes.

The 2008 world champion is chasing his fifth pole in succession to give himself the best shot of a repeat win to close the gap on Vettel and Alonso after being left trailing by  both rivals at Spa and finishing third.

The driver starting on pole has won eight of the last 10 races at Monza and only three current drivers - by coincidence the top three in the championship - have won there before. None of them has so far won twice in Italy for the same team.

"We will use a refined version of the low-drag package introduced at Spa. We hope to see an improvement in race pace after the lessons we learned over the race weekend in Belgium," said Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff.         

STAT ATTACK


Lap distance: 5.783km. 53 laps. Total distance 306.720km

Start time: 1200 GMT

2012 pole: Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 1:24.010

2012 winner: Hamilton

Race lap record: Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Ferrari 1:21.046, 2004

Tyres: Hard (orange), medium (white)


WINS

Four different teams have won the 11 races so far this year (Lotus, Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes).

Red Bull's triple champion Sebastian Vettel has five wins in 2013. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Mercedes's Nico Rosberg have won two races each.
Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen and Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton have each won one.

Alonso has 32 career wins, Vettel 31, Hamilton 22, Raikkonen 20 and McLaren's Jenson Button 15.
Ferrari have won 221 races since the championship started in 1950, McLaren 182, Williams 114 and Red Bull 39.

POLE

Mercedes have been on pole eight times in 11 races. Vettel has taken the other three.

Vettel has 39 poles to his credit, putting him third in the all-time list (Michael Schumacher had 68 and Ayrton Senna 65). Hamilton has 31 and Alonso 22.

Hamilton's pole in Belgium last month was his fourth in a row, a career first for the Briton.
The last British driver to take four poles in a row was Damon Hill in 1995.

Mercedes have locked out the front row in qualifying three times this year.

Alonso has not been on the front row in the last 21 races, with his last appearance being his pole in Germany in July 2012. He has not been on pole in a dry qualifying since 2010.

POINTS

Caterham and Marussia have yet to score a point after three seasons in Formula One.

None of the five 2013 rookies has scored points so far.

Kimi Raikkonen's retirement at Spa ended a record run of 27 successive races in the points for Lotus.

Until Belgium, the Finn was the only driver to have scored points in every race this year. He had also racked up 38 successive grand prix finishes - three short of Nick Heidfeld's record of 41.

ITALY

There are currently no Italian drivers on the starting grid, but several of Italian ancestry.

Of the 63 Italian Grands Prix held since the world championship started in 1950, all but one have been at Monza. The other, in 1980, was at Imola.

The track is the quickest on the calendar, with top speeds of up to 340kph. On the approach to the first chicane, cars brake from 340kph to 80kph in the space of 150 metres.

The Italian GP has been won from pole position eight times in the last 10 years and 10 in the last 13.

Only two drivers in the last two decades have won at Monza and taken the title that season - and both are Germans. Michael Schumacher did it in 2000 and 2003 with Ferrari and Vettel triumphed in 2011.

Vettel took his first F1 win at Monza, with Toro Rosso in 2008, and became the sport's youngest race winner at the age of 21. His Australian team mate Mark Webber has never finished on the podium there.

Vettel (2008, 2011), Hamilton (2012) and Alonso (2007, 2010) are the only current drivers to have won at Monza. None of them have won for the same team twice.

Vettel's 2011 win for Red Bull remains the team's sole podium finish at Monza to date.

MILESTONES


McLaren are celebrating 50 years since New Zealander Bruce McLaren founded the team on Sept 2, 1963.

Sunday will be the last Formula One race in Europe of the season and the last on the continent for the current V8 engine, which will be replaced next season by a V6 unit.