Fast facts ahead of the Italian Grand Prix

F1 Grand Prix, GP Italy, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza

Just a few days after the incident-packed Dutch Grand Prix, Formula One is back to action with Italy welcoming the field. F1Technical’s Balázs Szabó picks out the vital facts ahead of the nail-biting Italian Grand Prix that takes place at the legendary Autodromo Nazionale Monza.

Historic track – Today’s Italian Grand Prix will be the 73rd race in Italy which means that the race has been staged in every single year since the the FIA Formula One Championship was launched back in 1950. Of the 72 Italian Grands Prix, 71 races have taken place at Monza. The only exception happened in 1980 when Imola played host to the Italian Grand Prix.

The German and the Briton – Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton are the most successful drivers in the history of the Italian Grand Prix. Both drivers have won on five occasions. Nelsion Piquet sits behind the duo on this list with four victories to his name. Of the current field, only Sebastian Vettel is a multiple race winner at Monza – he has been victorious on three occasions.

Ferrari on home soil – The Scuderia is the most successful team in the Italian Grand Prix with 19 triumphs followed by McLaren with ten wins. Mercedes has won seven times and has been the dominant force since the hybrid power unit were introduced in 2014.

However, the team from Brackley was unable to win in the last three years as the 2019 Italian Grand Prix saw Charles Leclerc show a heroic performance to secure his second F1 victory while it was AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly, who came out on top after a chaotic race. Last year saw Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen come together with Daniel Ricciardo securing a brilliant victory for McLaren.

Three compounds – The sport’s tyre supplier Pirelli is providing tyres from the middle of its range at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix. The C2 compound will feature as the white-banded hard tyres, with the C3 as the medium tyres and C4 featuring as the red soft tyre.

The Brazilian – The fastest race lap record dates back to 2004 when Rubens Barrichello set a time of 1m21.046 with Ferrari that is still the official track record at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.

Two DRS zones - There will be two DRS zones in Italy. The detection point for the first zone will be 95m before Turn 7, with the activation point 170m after Turn 7. The second detection point will be 20m before Turn 11, with the activation point 115m after the finish line.

Sponsors – The Italian Grand Prix has had a title sponsor since 1988 when Coca-Cola became the major partner of the event. Following four years with the American multinational beverage corporation, the Italian Grands Prix have been sponsored by Pioneer, Campari, Vodafone, Santander and Heineken. This year’s race is sponsored by Formula One’s sole tyre supplier Pirelli.

Long cirucit – The Autodromo Nazionale Monza is a relatively long circuit with its length of 5.793km. The race distance will be 306.720km with drivers required to complete 53 laps to cover the entire distance.

Changes – The Temple of Speed has gone through some key changes compared to last year. The track has been resurfaces between Turns 1 and 2, Turns 4 and 5, and between Turns 8 and 10. Furthermore, all rubber kerbs have been removed between Turns 4 and 5.

Stewards – The international FIA race stewards will be Loic Bacquelaine, Mika Salo and Garry Connelly. The trio will work together with Paolo Longoni who will take on the role of the national steward.

Fastest lap - Three drivers on the current grid have fastest laps at this race. Lewis Hamilton set the fastest race lap on six, Kimi Räikkönen on three occasions while Daniel Ricciardo achieved this feat in 2017 with Red Bull.

The debutant - After Alexander Albon had been diagnosed with appendicitis, Williams decided to give its reserve driver Nyck de Vries the chance of making his F1 debut. The Dutchman has gained valuable experiences with various F1 car this year. The Dutchman is the team's official reserve driver and made his FP1 debut with the Grove outfit earlier this season at Barcelona, replacing Albon at the time.

He then also appeared in an official session at Paul Ricard where he took over the car of Lewis Hamilton in the opening practice before making his third FP1 appearance with Aston Martin yesterday at Monza, standing in for Sebastian Vettel.