95/356: FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO D'ITALIA

Onward to the reason why I visited Italy for two days. I went there to attend the Formula 1 race in Monza.

I really enjoy watching the races on a lazy Sunday afternoon and have thought about visiting a race for a while now but never had something that pushed me to do it. With this ongoing project of mine I finally got around to do it.

There is one simple reason why I picked Monza as the place where I would attend a race. It was the last race to be held in Europe this season. So it was either Monza or wait for next year. Monza has a great and long tradition so we decided to attend this one. 'We' because I went with a long time friend of mine.

We got to the circuit early on Sunday morning and then watched the GP3, GP2 and Porsche Supercup races, or parts of them. But of course the highlight of the day was the F1 race that started at two pm.

Two of the things that really stuck out to me were the sound of the cars and how international the crowd was. I could identify at least four or five languages and there were many more which I wasn't able to place. And the sound the F1 cars make, oh my, it gave me goosebumps. Seeing it on TV is nowhere close as intense as it is live. I am not a giant petrol head but I really enjoyed that roaring.

The race itself was interesting because the Sauber team (Swiss owned) had a car start in third place which was then able to finish in fifth place. This is by far the best result they had this year. Nico Hülkenberg, the driver, had a Mercedes just behind him during the whole race so it stayed interesting. Ferrari getting a car on the podium and one in fourth place really helped as well. That, as you can imagine, made the Italians really happy.

F1 is a sport which is best when watched on TV because they can instantly switch to the place on the track where the action is. When you are actually there, you only see a little part of the track and the big screens are usually not that close to you. I enjoyed the whole experience but it was probably a one time thing. The tickets were also pretty pricey so that doesn't help.

sorry for the sub par pictures. As you can imagine, my phone is not really equipped to take photos of speeding race cars. 

 The train station we got off at already had a very famous name.

 The GP2 race. The cars a little weaker than F1 but still plenty fast.

 Warm up rounds of the F1 race

 The owner of this little blog.

 The cars approaching the 'Variante del Rettifilo'

 The tribune where we were sitting

A Ferrari Fan cheering on his team.


Race on!