Every season, often many times a year, we vendors of hackery and hearsay are asked the same question: which is your favourite track in Formula One?
The answer usually begins with an M: Melbourne, Monaco, Montreal and Monza – for that is the order in which they come – all have their champions, and for me they are all red letter days on the F1 calendar.
The truth is that the opening race of the season in Melbourne, the street circuit around Albert Park’s lake, is often a bit of a dud. The heady buildup to the new season too often ends with the empty feeling of anticlimax.
I treasure it because it marks the start of the new season. I’m also very fond of Melbourne. I’m even more enthusiastic about Sydney, my second favourite city after Rome. Then there is all that other-side-of-the-world sunshine after another tough British winter. Albert Park, however, and the race itself, I’m not so sure.
Monaco is another favourite because it is the most glamorous location in this very glamorous, global sport. Again, though, the race, the tight street circuit, often produces disappointing fare.
Montreal is rather different: a great track, fast and thrilling, with a frisson of danger about it. Plus, there is the presiding ghost of Gilles Villeneuve, perhaps the fastest and bravest F1 driver of them all. Once again, the greatness of Montreal as a city, with its cobbled streets, sense of style and great restaurants, and eye-catching buildings helps to swing the vote.
So, for me, the answer must always be Monza, the venue for next week’s Italian Grand Prix. OK, it’s in Italy, which is always a plus, but you would never count the fourth largest city in Lombardy, and a place once best known for its textile industry and administrative expertise, as one of that country’s great attractions. Monza, come GP weekend, this temple for the tifosi, is the only place to be. So it is ahead of the other Ms, and Silverstone and São Paulo, as the best of them all – I really miss Valencia but that’s another tale.
As my great predecessor Alan Henry said: “To put it in greater perspective, the Italians were racing cars around Monza nearly a decade before the Great Depression. They were racing cars around Monza nearly a decade before Bernie Ecclestone was born, too!”
It is the sense of history, more than anything else, that has swung it for me as well. The only difficulty has been getting to the media centre on time because, close to the entrance to the track, there is the finest bookshop in Formula One. Some of the books are even in English.
There is, at Monza, the feeling that little has changed in all the years. There is the speed, too. This place is all about power and pace, which is appropriate for Ferrari’s “home” race. You don’t get the twisty speed you might enjoy at Spa or Suzuka but in a straight line the cars go faster there than anywhere else.
Sometimes, the track can look in a state of mild disrepair – well, you can be even more critical of São Paulo in this regard – but it is atmosphere I’m talking about and that feeling of excitement that comes when you talk about the Lesmo, the Ascari chicane and the Parabolica.
Formula One’s contract at Monza runs out after 2016. The race, they say, is in danger, for this sport is hardly run by sentiment. We have already lost a number of fondly remembered racing tracks and gained rather too many white elephants in their place. To borrow from Cole Porter, every time we say goodbye, we die a little.
If Monza goes, however, the game is truly up. Formula One without Monza on the schedule simply wouldn’t be Formula One. This is one the sport frankly cannot afford to lose.
