JANUARY 10, 2024

Monza kicks off decisive upgrade work

Almost four months after initially scheduled, the much needed upgrade of the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza has started on Monday, being kicked off in a lengthy ceremony presided by Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, with the Automobilie Club d’Italia president, Angelo Sticchi Damiani, as master of ceremonies.

Three areas of work are going to be the focus of the team that, for the next 140 days, will be modernizing this historic circuit, with a completely new asphalt being laid down until the end of May, changing the grip characteristics of this track, removing some bumps that had come up in recent years and, therefore, making this year’s Italian Grand Prix a new experience for drivers and teams, as well as Pirelli, as they’ll have to learn everything about it in the three Free Practice Sessions that will precede qualifying.

But for the Commercial Rights holder, the two other major upgrades are the most important ones. First of all, the three existing underpasses – that allow people to enter the inside perimeter of the track to go to the paddock and some of the grandstands – will be enlarged and reworked, to allow a much faster circulation of heavy machinery, especially after the Grand Prix, when currently room for only one lorry to pass at a time, but also during the rest of the day as the existing solution has no space for two cars to cross each other inside the tunnels. On top of that, a fourth underpass will be build, to help dissipate the huge traffic everyone faces inside the circuit coming in and out of it during the Grand Prix.

Finally, the Paddock Club area, that was at the center of a major contractual issue in 2022, when the structure was only put in place for Friday, after a legal dispute that was resolved too late for the circuit to fulfill its obligations with the fans on Thursday, will be completely revamped and build to the new standards of Formula One, something Formula 1’s CEO, Stefano Domenicali, saluted in no uncertain terms.

The Italian, who attended the ceremony remotely, said that, “for us this is an important objective. We must be able to receive our guests in an adequate structure and not more under a tent as it was until last year. In addition to this, there are obviously other interventions necessary for the future, Monza has a great tradition, but we also need to look ahead and propose the racetrack to the level of other world championship tracks."

With the construction work under way, Sticchi Damiani admitted the new target is now to “extend the contract with Formula 1 until 2030”, but before that the circuit needs to get a new permission to continue operating, as it’s situated inside a protected national park and negotiations with the local authorities have, historically, been difficult to conclude in a relatively short period of time.