[Official] Italian Grand Prix 2021: Grand Prix Weekend Thread

[Born Racer]

Circuit length: 5.793 km
Number of laps: 53
Race distance: 306.72 km
Race Lap Record: 1:21.046 (2004 - Rubens Barrichello - Ferrari)
Dry weather tyre compounds: C2, C3 and C4

First Italian Grand Prix: 1921
First Grand Prix at this circuit: 1922
First World Championship Grand Prix: 1950
First Grand Prix on current configuration: 2000

If someone would like to do a preview of some kind, please feel free. I'm afraid it's been too busy a week of work for me to be able to produce one. There was a lot of history at Monza to incorporate for the time I had. Normal service will be resumed for Russia.

[mstets]

Interesting that Kubica is subbing again for Kimi while Ilott is headed to Portland for his first Indycar race. Nothing against Kubica, I thought he did a good job in Holland. Does this indicate that Ilott has no future at Alfa Romeo?

[Tourer]

No need to apologise re the intro BR - would be very hard for any of us to not appreciate the history of Monza and the special place that it is.

For me, I'm tipping a little less orange smoke than last weekend, probably less red flags and once again, a close contest at the front - with the odd wild card up there, will be interesting to see who is able to make that happen!

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by mstets

Interesting that Kubica is subbing again for Kimi while Ilott is headed to Portland for his first Indycar race. Nothing against Kubica, I thought he did a good job in Holland. Does this indicate that Ilott has no future at Alfa Romeo?

While I think it does indeed point to Illot's lack of future in F1, or at least with Alfa Romeo specifically, Kubica's sponsor is part of the team name, so it seems likely that this is the reason he's been first call as the team's reserve driver.


I'm a bit torn by it to be honest, I always like seeing new talent come through, even if only for a couple of races to show what they can do, but I'm also a big Kubica fan, so I'm glad he's getting a couple of races as he inevitably heads towards the end of his single seater career.

[S griffin]

Saw too Kubica in for Kimi. Shame for Kimi, but Bobby I know loves Italy and with an Italian brand, he will be keen to do well

Also nice touch to see that Parabolica will be renamed Alboreto to commemorate 20 years since we lost the great man

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Saw too Kubica in for Kimi. Shame for Kimi, but Bobby I know loves Italy and with an Italian brand, he will be keen to do well

Also nice touch to see that Parabolica will be renamed Alboreto to commemorate 20 years since we lost the great man

Seriously? No disrespect at all to Alboreto, but is nothing sacred? Or is it to be the Parabolica Alboreto?

Edit - so it's to be the Curva Alboreto...... As a mark of respect, yes, I appreciate it, but it will always be the Parabolica to me.....

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Seriously? No disrespect at all to Alboreto, but is nothing sacred? Or is it to be the Parabolica Alboreto?

Edit - so it's to be the Curva Alboreto...... As a mark of respect, yes, I appreciate it, but it will always be the Parabolica to me.....

My thoughts exactly and I have said the same words elsewhere.

[crmalcolm]

A couple of new liveries for Monza:

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

A couple of new liveries for Monza:

Now you’re making me want to drool

[Aysedasi]

The Alfa is very smart....

[Greem]

That's Francesco Bernoulli!

[crmalcolm]

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

The Alfa is very smart....

Gorgeous thing!

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by skycafe

Gorgeous thing!

Gorgeous is Alfa Romeo's middle name!

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Gorgeous is Alfa Romeo's middle name!

I thought that was Russell's first name?

[Born Racer]

Tsunoda continues to crack me up.

I was a bit surprised I'd be staying next year

Because I just keep crashing! So I spent lots of money for the whole team. It's not a good way to end the first half of the season, especially like in Hungary, I went into the wall in FP1 and ruined the whole session, almost two sessions. I got [told] by Franz [Tost, AlphaTauri Team Principal] and by Helmut [Marko, Red Bull motorsports advisor] that you need a more consistent result... and also discipline in those sessions.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...879jQlS0Y.html

[chillibowl]

excellent intro! less is more as i always say!

looks like today will be a productive Friday for me as i watch quali from work!

while im fine with changes to the race weekend format and like the sprint concept, i must concede that it is disruptive to my normal routine.

bit curious to see what the light level for this session will be as by my reckoning it will be between 6-7pm local time? im thinking the shadows will be getting long by Q3?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Looking forward to this. Can Verstappen and RBR capitalise on their win at Zandvoort, or will it swing back Hamilton and Mercedes' way? Exciting times.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Bottas gets the top spot, followed by Hamilton and Verstappen. Norris 4th with Ricciardo in 5th.

[E.B]

This qualifying malarkey now setting the grid for a Sprint race for me makes it quite an anti-climatic session. Its just seems superfluous to me. Its just not right. I dont really know why I stayed up to 3:30am to watch it tbh. I wont next time. Ill just skip it and get some sleep. I cant believe I am the only one who thinks that way....

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by E.B

This qualifying malarkey now setting the grid for a Sprint race for me makes it quite an anti-climatic session. Its just seems superfluous to me. Its just not right. I dont really know why I stayed up to 3:30am to watch it tbh. I wont next time. Ill just skip it and get some sleep. I cant believe I am the only one who thinks that way....

I don't remember qualifying for the sprint race at Silverstone being like this. It seemed a little chaotic, with drivers attempting a flying lap, while contending with a track full of cars.

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by E.B

This qualifying malarkey now setting the grid for a Sprint race for me makes it quite an anti-climatic session. Its just seems superfluous to me. Its just not right. I dont really know why I stayed up to 3:30am to watch it tbh. I wont next time. Ill just skip it and get some sleep. I cant believe I am the only one who thinks that way....

I went to bed then watched at 5:00 when I got up. Yeah, a bit anti-climatic but Q sessions tend to be a bit weird at Monza with all the game-playing and search for a slipstream.

As so many team people and commentators kept saying - having two starts and two blasts into the first corner is going to be "interesting". Has me thinking that I'll stay up to watch at least the start of tonight's sprint - once it settles down that is likely to be that.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Hawkwood

While I think it does indeed point to Illot's lack of future in F1, or at least with Alfa Romeo specifically, Kubica's sponsor is part of the team name, so it seems likely that this is the reason he's been first call as the team's reserve driver.


I'm a bit torn by it to be honest, I always like seeing new talent come through, even if only for a couple of races to show what they can do, but I'm also a big Kubica fan, so I'm glad he's getting a couple of races as he inevitably heads towards the end of his single seater career.

And now he has signed on for the rest of the season with Juncos-Hollinger, yup the Hollinger who bought in with Williams.

[bathurst77]

Any truth to the rumour that they putting a big diamond in the nose of vettees car?

[BTCC frog]

Originally Posted by E.B

This qualifying malarkey now setting the grid for a Sprint race for me makes it quite an anti-climatic session. Its just seems superfluous to me. Its just not right. I dont really know why I stayed up to 3:30am to watch it tbh. I wont next time. Ill just skip it and get some sleep. I cant believe I am the only one who thinks that way....

I agree with you. The qualifying session is normally massively exciting, sometimes nearly as much as the race itself. Having a pointless sprint race in between does make it quite anti-climatic, and I normally find Monza qualifying one of the most exciting on the calendar because of the slipstreams. I'm still desperately hoping for these sprint races to be scrapped for next year entirely and return us to the perfect weekend format that we usually have, but with the likes of Brawn and Domenicali consistently claiming that it has had 'overwhelmingly positive feedback' when every poll I've seen related to the sprint races has been at least 60% negative, that seems incredibly unlikely. So hopefully today's sprint race will be boring and processional, and the Interlagos one too, to increase the negative feedback even further. The worst thing that could happen would be some kind of freak incident like a collision between Hamilton and Verstappen, because then it would indeed be super exciting (with them fighting through the pack on Sunday), and would then be used as an excuse in favour of the sprint races forever, despite the fact that incidents like this occur once every five or so years at most. In terms of risk vs reward, the drivers are better off playing it safe in this sprint race, and I hope they do.