90 years of high speed driving in the Royal Park
Michael Schumacher, even if he is driving Mercedes today, still admits that that driving Monza still gives him a view of shades of red (and not a shade of grey in all ambiguous meanings) and a warm feeling when he recalls his time as a member of the Scuderia family.

The race course within the Royal Park of Monza is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year – let’s jump at the opportunity to reflect the Scuderia’s close relationship with the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza that is hosting the Formula 1 Championship races since 1950 without any break. 186 entries by the Scuderia are resulting since 1948 when Raymond Sommer finished 3rd on the 125 with chassis # 02C. Alberto Ascari took the first of 19 victories for the Scuderia, again on a 125, now with chassis #01C in 1949. Ascari did win the Monza race three times, only Michael Schumacher tops these results by winning five times, what makes him the most successful driver in Monza overall. It is noticeable that most of the drivers who achieved a victory -10 in total- did win in Monza more than one time: Ascari (3), Hill (2, 1960 Hill was wining with the last front engine race car ever since, 246 Dino #0007), Regazzoni (2), Schumacher (5) and Barichello (2). Only Surtees, Scarfiotti, Scheckter and Berger took the victory only one time. Alonso stays on a Red victory for one time to date, but, let’s hope for a change this weekend. Rubinio still holds the records for the fastest qualifying (1:20.089, 2004) and the fastest race (1:21.046, 2004), both set on chassis #240. The Scuderia holds the most victories as well as the most pole positions achieved. Drivers who made the pole but didn’t ever win the Italian Grand Prix have been Fangio, von Trips, Parkes, Ickx, Lauda, Andrietti and Alesi. Fangio, Prost, Hill, Lauda and Alonso also achieved victories for cars of other brand. von Trips was on his way to become world champion when he had the fatal accident in the 1961-edition, driving 156 F1 #0004. In 1958 only three cars finished the race, two of them being Ferraris, 246 Dino #0004 and #0005.

This weekend will see Massa’s 6th Italian GP for the Scuderia, missing one as a result of his injury in Hungary. His best result was a 3rd place, achieved in 2010 on #284. This was the year, when Alonso managed to win the Italian GP at Monza on #285.