Tonio Liuzzi: Monza is a wonderful circuit

It’s always special for a driver to race in his home Grand Prix, and since Imola fell off the F1 schedule, Monza has become even more important for any Italian.

This year Force India’s Tonio Liuzzi heads to the famous Autodromo as one of only two locals in the field. While veteran Jarno Trulli has a lot of support, Tonio will be the leading Italian contender, as he’s the man challenging for a place in the top 10 in both qualifying and the race.

’It’s definitely a special occasion to race in front of your own crowd and in front of your friends, because it’s the country where you come from,’ says Tonio. ’Plus Monza is a wonderful circuit, it’s one of the few historical circuits left in the World Championship, along with places like Spa. It has a great feeling, with a great atmosphere, a great crowd, and it’s always a special occasion.

’It’s one of the races I’m always waiting for most during the year. It’s a bit like Monaco for me, because I love the circuit and I love the tough challenge. Monza in a way is a bigger challenge, because you are in front of your crowd as well, and you want to perform particularly well.’

Although he loves the circuit, Tonio did not spend his childhood years standing with the tifosi, watching his heroes. Nor did he race at the track in a junior category at the start of his career. In fact he didn’t even Monza until 2003, when he was competing in the F3000 event supporting the Italian GP.

’I never went to watch an F1 race before, so I had never been there. As I’ve said in the past, when I was karting for me there was just the karting world. I was following F1, because I was a fan of Nigel Mansell, but I didn’t see a race live. The first year in F3000 I finished fourth with Coloni, and then in 2004 I had pole and won the race with Arden.’

Tonio competed in the Italian GP for the first time with Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2006.

’I remember a big fight with David Coulthard in the Red Bull during the race. I can remember being on the grass, trying to overtake, but it was good fun and a good fight, although I finished out of the points.’

In fact he finished 14th, while the following year he was 17th, albeit ahead of team mate Sebastian Vettel and a certain Adrian Sutil! In 2008 Tonio had to watch from the sidelines in his role as Force India reserve driver, but he was back last season for his first race in a season and a half.

’I made it into Q3 and I started in seventh place, and I was running fourth in the race and then the driveshaft broke. It was really frustrating, but for me the important thing was to show on my comeback that I was able to race and be competitive.’

Part of what makes Monza so fascinating is that it is unique, and the teams create a special low downforce wing package.

’It’s different from all the other circuits because you use such a low level of downforce. You never have a car with such low grip, so you have to get used to it on Friday practice. It’s a circuit I really like to race on, because you feel the car really light. It slides in the corners, and you drift with all four wheels.’

The other big challenge is bouncing over the chicane kerbs effectively.

’In a way it’s completely different to all the other races. You might think that with six corners it’s not such a big deal, but you have to fly over the kerbs, especially into Ascari. You have to understand which way to use the first kerb to put the car to have a good exit. In fact the key in Monza is to have a good exit out of all of the corners, because the straights are so long that you can gain a huge amount of time.

’The positioning into the corners is the key, but flying over the kerbs is not easy, especially if you have a stiff car that bounces you back. There are not many corners, but they are really technical.’

Last year Force India was very competitive at Monza, and Adrian’s fourth place still stands as his best result. This year rivals have eaten into the team’s straight line speed advantage, thanks mainly to F-Duct technology, but things could be different this weekend.

’I don’t think every team will use the F-Duct in Monza, because the level of downforce you use is so little that you’re not paying that much for it. We believe that in Monza we will be competitive. Before Spa we knew that everyone had upgraded their cars to a good level of top speed, even though we know our car is really strong on low drag.

’So we knew Spa would be tougher than last year. But for Monza I think we’ll be in good shape - maybe not as strong as last year, but still in a position for good points.’