Grand Prix of Italy Preview
Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Milan, Italy 11th - 13th September 1998	by Ian Burley, England

Rain and spray failed to douse the flames of controversy in the previous Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium and it's likely a few glowing embers will linger on as we head to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard are due to have a private meeting some time during the race weekend in an attempt to clear the air after the sensational crash between the Ferrari and McLaren drivers. Whatever the outcome, the Tifosi are unlikely to give Coulthard, or his team-mate and World Championship leader, Mika Hakkinen, much of a friendly welcome. The championship gap between the Finn and the German stays at seven points. With 30 points left to score instead of 40 before the last race, the advantage is slightly more in Hakkinen's favour. Monza is all about power and brakes, with a dash of aerodynamic efficiency. In all respects, McLaren is looking good. A question mark has been raised over the effectiveness of Bridgestone's tyres in recent Grands Prix, especially during races. However, tyres are less likely to be an issue at Monza as there are no long tight turns. Last year, most of the front runners made do with one tyre and fuel stop, though pit stops could be critical for success. Coulthard will recall that lightning pit work won him the race last year from Jean Alesi's Benetton. A lot of people compare Monza with Hockenheim because both feature long straights broken up by chicanes and this demands next to no wing angles for maximum straight line speed. However, there is a difference - Hockenheim has a tricky and tight stadium section which is made more difficult by the low downforce configuration of the cars. Monza has no tight sections at all and some drivers, like Arrows' Mika Salo, don't find the circuit very challenging. "The circuit is OK but I'm sure it's been better," says Salo. "Again, it's a high speed circuit, but different in that it's high speed straights, followed by chicane, long straights, chicane, and then the same again." Formula One's 'other Finn' added that of the ten corners at Monza, only three represent much of a driving challenge. For Michael Schumacher, last year's race was one to forget. His Ferrari refused to handle to his liking and he started from a lowly 9th on the grid only scraping a single point in the race for sixth. At Hockenheim this year, the Ferraris were not in the leading chase either and, if anything, Monza suits this year's Ferrari less than Hockenheim. However, Ferrari seems confident that its long wheelbase car, which wasn't run in Hockenheim, will solve many of the problems they encountered in Germany. During the Monza test, Schumacher reported that "the cars are going better than they were at Hockenheim and the gap should be down to around four or five tenths of a second." To back up his team leader's words, Eddie Irvine topped the time sheets on two of the Monza test days. If Ferrari can do well this weekend, it will be a double bonus: some respite for the Tifosi and maintained hope for the championship. There is really little excuse for McLaren to perform anything other than brilliantly at Monza. Unlike Ferrari, their car is ideal for Monza and Bridgestone, once again, will have a the narrow front tyre specially requested by McLaren technical director, Adrian Newey, for fast circuits like Monza. "Although lap times during testing normally hold little significance for us," said Hirohiden Hamashima, Bridgestone's technical director, "David was still going faster on lap 27 of a simulated race test when red flags stopped him. We believe that this demonstrates the durability of our tyres for the Italian Grand Prix itself." Coulthard, especially, will want to put the drama of Spa behind him and repeat one of his best Formula One performances, when he won at Monza last year. Hakkinen knows that he must increase his advantage over Schumacher in order to earn some relief from the pressure as the season comes to its close. By winning, Hakkinen can take his lead to a minimum of 11 points, guaranteeing that he will lead the championship into the last race. If the Monza tests are anything to go by, Hakkinen just has to get on and do it. Jordan, naturally, will still be on Cloud Nine when they arrive at Monza and they have good cause to be optimistic for the Italian Grand Prix. Damon Hill, who seemed highly motivated even before his win at Spa, is a past winner at Monza and Giancarlo Fisichella put his Jordan on the second row of the grid there last year, eventually finishing fourth. A few races ago, team owner Eddie Jordan might have been pleased with fourth, but now that he has had the taste of victory at Spa, the target has moved up-market. Ralf Schumacher put his Jordan among the McLarens at the lead of the Hockenheim race and the signs are that the Jordan Mugen-Honda is well suited to Monza. The team didn't produce a quick lap at Monza last week, but testing there before the Belgian race was very positive. Nothing less than a podium will satisfy Jordan as they chase Benetton and Williams for third place in the Constructors Championship. After Spa, they have to be considered a dark horse. Williams was the best of the rest before Jordan's resurgence eclipsed them at Spa, but Jacques Villeneuve is looking forward to Monza, even though the circuit has not been kind to him during his previous two visits. "We should have a chance of getting some points and another podium - maybe a win," said the reigning World Champion. "Somehow this year this sort of circuit seems to create fewer problems for us than a lot of the others and we can get a lot more out of the car than ever before." Heinz Harald Frentzen ran well at Monza last year, beating Villeneuve in qualifying and the race, so it will be interesting to see how the pair fair this year. Frentzen will want to put on a good display in order to persuade someone to sign him for next year. Benetton say they are suffering because of McLaren, or to be more precise - because of the fact that Bridgestone is putting all its efforts behind McLaren. A frustrated Pat Symonds, Benetton's technical director, explained: "Recently we have been concentrating our development on the new wider Bridgestone that was introduced at Hungary and have made significant alterations to our car to accommodate this tyre. In back to back testing, we found the wide tyre to give our cars a significant performance advantage. However, we have had to fall in line with McLaren's wishes to run the narrow tyre here at Monza." Otherwise, Symonds says he will have more bits and pieces to experiment with at Monza. "For this race we are introducing a new aerodynamic package which consists of new rear bodywork and diffuser and further modifications to the front wing," he says. "This has proved to be very successful in testing this week and will be on the cars for the race weekend." Symonds wants to see Wurz and Fisichella back at the business end of the grid, just like last year when Alesi planted his Benetton on pole. It won't be quite as easy as then. Jean Alesi is, of course, now at Sauber. Overjoyed with his third place at Spa two weeks ago, the same man was bitterly disappointed at coming home second at Monza last year. That said, Alesi always goes well at Monza and has contested the lead in the last two years. However, with last year's Ferrari engine hiding under the Petronas badge, the French Sicilian may not have an opportunity to delight his many fans at Monza this year. Team-mate Johnny Herbert, fresh from the announcement that he is to join the Stewart team next year, will be thinking that his Italian Grand Prix win back in 1995 was longer ago than he would prefer to remember. Stewart themselves will be hard to quantify before this weekend. On paper, they look reasonably positive; the car has good aerodynamics according to the team and the latest Ford V10 is certainly powerful, though fragile. Rubens Barrichello might go well in qualifying and Jos Verstappen, with an eye on next year, will be doing his best to impress rival team managers as usual. Alain Prost has already written off 1998. The team has one point from Spa, which guarantees certain valuable benefits from the FIA next year. The priority now is to strengthen the team for next year, especially on the design staff. This may well distract them from their race preparation, so don't expect too much from the pretty blue cars at Monza. Olivier Panis and Jarno Trulli, already committed to Prost next year, will faithfully soldier on. While Prost have successfully found that magic single championship point, neither Tyrrell nor Minardi have managed the feat, though of the two, it's Tyrrell which looks the most likely to. Tora Takagi hasn't been to Monza before, but Tyrrell's David Brown is optimistic: "I think Tora should go well in Monza as long as we can get the car right for him. He clearly likes fast circuits, as he demonstrated in Hockenheim and I would expect him to be quick through Ascari, Lesmo and the Parabolica. If he's able to do that, he'll be well on his way to setting competitive lap times." Ricardo Rosset, on the other hand, isn't a big feature of Tyrrell's publicity hand-outs, but at least the likelihood is that he and the Minardis of Esteban Tuero and Shinji Nakano are unlikely to be threatened by the dreaded 107 percent rule in qualifying. Minardi, who appear to be attracting a bit more support from Ford, will be at their home Grand Prix of course. However, even that advantage failed to lift them from the final row on the grid last year. Last, but not least, for Arrows - by no means a team expected to be at the tail of the grid - this weekend will be very tough after the carnage of Spa. The team was forced to cancel its test program last week in order to repair the three cars badly damaged at Spa, both in practice and during the race. Preparation for races is crucial, so Pedro Diniz and Mika Salo could be struggling at Monza, especially after the departure of technical director John Barnard. At least the weather should be better than at Spa. Which only leaves us to hope that this year's Italian Grand Prix will be more exciting than last year's procession, and less controversial than the preceding race at Belgium.

Ian Burley	© 1998 Atlas Formula One Journal.
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