Have all the important information for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at your fingertips with the F1 Fanatic race programme:
The race weekend
2011 Italian Grand Prix preview – Ferrari go for home glory at Red Bull’s weak track
2011 F1 championship points – Full drivers and teams points standings heading into this weekend’s race.
Reserve drivers
The following changes to the usual driver line-up will be made for first practice only:
Nico Hulkenberg will drive Paul di Resta’s car at Force India.
Karun Chandhok will drive Jarno Trulli’s car at Lotus.
Tyres
Pirelli have brought the medium (white colouring) and soft (yellow colouring) tyres for this weekend’s race. They have not supplied any development tyres for the practice sessions.
Stewards
Former F1 driver Derek Daly, a veteran of 49 starts, is the drivers’ advisor to the stewards this weekend.
Daly joins Swiss auto club president Paul Gutjahr and FIA trainee steward programme graduate Silvia Bellot on the panel.
The track
First used in 1922, Monza has held more world championship races than any other venue. It has been on the F1 calendar every year with the exception of 1980.
Monza is the fastest track on the calendar – Michael Schumacher set a record average speed for an F1 race when he won the 2003 Grand Prix at an average of 247.586kph (153.8mph).
Since then the cars have lost two cylinders and with various other restrictions they’re likely to fall short of that mark this year. But they will still hit by far their highest top speeds of the year.
The track is little changed since the first chicane was reprofiled for the 2000 race. This year two black-and-yellow strips runs across the alternative track line here to discourage drivers from cutting the corner as three drivers did at the start last year.
Changing tracks: Monza – How the circuit layout has been altered since the track was first used in the world championship.
Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy – circuit information – Full data on the Monza circuit.
The weather
Expect a typically sunny Monza race weekend.
2011 Italian Grand Prix weather – Monza to stay dry and warm
Following the race live
F1 Fanatic Live will be open for your comments during every session.
Join us for every lap of the race, qualifying and practice at these times:
Friday 9th September 2011
Italian Grand Prix Free Practice 1: 10:00-11:30 (UK time: 9:00-10:30)
Italian Grand Prix Free Practice 2: 14:00-15:30 (UK time: 13:00-14:30)
Saturday 10th September 2011
Italian Grand Prix Free Practice 3: 11:00-12:00 (UK time: 10:00-11:00)
Italian Grand Prix Qualifying: 14:00 (UK time: 13:00)
Sunday 11th September 2011
Italian Grand Prix: 14:00 (UK time: 13:00)
More session times and live coverage details here: 2011 Italian Grand Prix
You can follow F1 Fanatic on Twitter for updates throughout the race weekend:
- Follow F1 Fanatic on Twitter for news, comment and more
- Follow F1 Fanatic Live for updates during every session
- Follow F1 Fanatic Update so you never miss an article
And you can use the F1 Fanatic Live Twitter app to get updates from the drivers, teams and media at the circuit:
2010 Italian Grand Prix highlights
Fernando Alonso won last year’s Italian Grand Prix, passing early leader Jenson Button via the pit stops.
Felipe Massa completed the podium but Lewis Hamilton failed to finish after tangling with Massa on the first lap.
After losing time with an engine problem early in the race, Sebastian Vettel bounced back to finish fourth by holding off his sole pit stop until the final lap of the race.
2010 Italian Grand Prix review – Alonso beats Button to Monza win
2010 Italian Grand Prix qualifying – Alonso takes Ferrari’s first pole of 2010 in Monza
Previous Italian Grands Prix
2009 Italian Grand Prix: Barrichello leads one-two as Brawn are back on top
2008 Italian Grand Prix: Sebastian Vettel brushes title rivals aside to win at Monza
2007 Italian Grand Prix: McLaren trounce Ferrari
2006 Italian Grand Prix: Schumacher heads for retirement after victory
2005 Italian Grand Prix: Montoya wins with deflating tyre
2004 Italian Grand Prix: Barrichello wins as Ferrari surge to the front
Join in the 2011 F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship
There’s F1 races tickets DVDs and more to be won. Play for free by guessing the top five in each race.
You can enter and edit your predictions up to the start of qualifying on Saturday:
Image design by PJ Tierney
Fixy (@)
8th September 2011, 12:34
If Vettel finished fourth with problems last year, without problems this year both him and Mark can realistically finish on the podium.
BasCB (@bascb)
8th September 2011, 12:39
As its a bit colder than optimal for Ferrari they will not be the ultimate contender. And McLaren hurt themselves in Spa to be out of contention for the win. If they do the same here, it might be another 1-2 for Red Bull.
But I hope its going to be as tight as can be and the DRS will hopefully only makes for slipstreaming like battles instead of drive-by sequences.
PaulM
8th September 2011, 14:53
I am in San Francisco on business, so I am going to be experiencing the US coverage of a F1 race for the first time. Any US F1 Fanatics out there who can offer any advice?
F1Yankee (@f1yankee)
8th September 2011, 17:55
i’m so sorry for you. sf is great, tho :)
US tv times for the italian gp:
all times eastern
practice 1 – 4 am, friday, speed.com
practice 2 – 8 am, friday, speed tv
practice 3 – 5 am, saturday, speed.com
qualifying – 8 am, saturday, speed tv
race – 8 am, sunday, speed tv
take 3 hours off for the west coast, race starts at 5 am.
PaulM
8th September 2011, 20:47
Many thanks F1Yankee. Will have to see if the hotel has Speed TV. Do not think any bars will be open at 5am ;-)
Palle (@palle)
8th September 2011, 21:18
With a VPN account You can set up an IP adress in the UK, from all most anywhere. Then You can stream the real time broadcast from BBC redbutton. But You need about 6 Mbit/s bandwidth and a stable VPN provider.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
8th September 2011, 22:08
That Pirelli video makes me very excited! So much speed out of Parabolica.