In numbers: 10 statistics about the Temple of Speed

One of Formula One’s original Grands Prix, the greatest show on four wheels has visited Autodromo Nazionale Monza in every season but one since 1950.

The quickest venue on the calendar sees drivers at full throttle for 80% of the 5.793km circuit, pushing these intricate pieces of machinery right to the very limit.

Here are 10 statistics we think you ought to know ahead of this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.

Williams have an excellent record at Monza during the hybrid era, finishing in the points with both cars in five of the eight races held here since 2014. George Russell added more points last year when he finished 9th.

Nicholas Latifi is still seeking his first Monza points finish, but he couldn’t have come closer in either 2020 or 2021, finishing 11th in both races.

Nyck de Vries became the first driver in 44 years to feature for two different teams in the same Grand Prix weekend. The last such instance came at the 1978 Italian Grand Prix where Harald Ertl started the weekend pre-qualifying with Ensign before switching to ATS for qualifying – he failed to make the cut in both sessions.

Monza is the quickest track in Formula One and has played host to the fastest eight races ever held in world championship history. This will hopefully play to our strengths as we’ve topped the speed trap figures in Qualifying four times in the last seven race weekends, and been second-fastest in one of the other three.

Race day in Italy is the 42nd birthday of former Williams driver Antonio Pizzonia, who tested for the team from 2001-2003 before racing as a stand-in for injured race drivers Ralf Schumacher and Nick Heidfeld in 2004 and 2005, finishing 7th on four occasions.

We started on the front row at Monza as recently as 2017, when Lance Stroll became the youngest driver to do so in F1 history, aged 18 years 309 days - a record that still stands.

In 2004, Juan Pablo Montoya set a record for the fastest lap in F1 which would take 14 years to break, with the Colombian averaging 264.24km/h

Our cars have qualified second on the grid at Monza on 11 previous occasions, more than in any other starting position at this track. Our most common finishing position at the Italian GP is P3 (10 times), the most recent of which came in 2014 and 2015 (both by Felipe Massa).

The FW44 chassis has been closing the gap to the front of the grid in recent races. Having been 3.5% behind the fastest lap of the weekend at the Spanish GP in May, this fell to just 1.92% last weekend at Zandvoort.

Both our drivers are previous podium finishers at Monza in the junior formulas, with Nicky finishing 3rd in the 2017 Formula 2 feature race, a result matched by Alex in the 2018 equivalent.