It is becoming traditional for the Italian Grand Prix to be considered an “end-of-season-blind”, where everyone has a go to win or burst in the attempt, for usually by September the usually various Grand Prix teams have reached their peak of seasonal development and new models are on the way, and often these are tried out in practice, the old-faithfuls being used for the race itself.
Being held at Monza, which is a pure speed track, this flat-out blind is encouraged for the Italian Grand Prix and it now seems that the combined road and banked track circuit is a permanent feature of the Monza race. The road circuit is virtually flat and very fast, even though it has three slow corners, and the speed track with its high concrete bankings is full-bore all the way round. The two are combined as shown in the accompanying diagram, with the wide straight between the pits and grandstands being divided by a row of marker cones.
To spectators in this area there is the unusual sight of ears on the pits side accelerating away from the South Turn, or “Parabolica” as it is known because of its shape, and heading for the North Banking, and cars on the grandstands side of the marker cones passing flat-out on their way to the “Curva Grande” on the road-circuit, having just come off the high-speed South Banking.
