F1 | ACI president Sticchi Damiani wants Monza oval circuit to host races again
The boss of the governing body of Italian motorsport wants Monza's centennial plans to include reconstruction work that enables the old oval circuit to once again host racing.
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According to reports in Italy, President Angelo Sticchi Damiani of the Audomobile Club d'Italia has renewed demands for support from the national government to help renovate the ciruit in time for its 100th anniversary in 2022.
Plans for the centennial Italian Grand Prix venue Monza also previously included new grandstands and making the circuit quicker by eliminating one of the chicanes of the existing Formula 1 layout and reprofiling the second Lesmo.
Sticchi Damiani called for "extraordinary support" to be granted at an online event organized by the Milan RCS Academy.
Damiani comments, "not only for restyling and a polish, but to modernize the track and ensure it can face another 20 years"
In addition to the necessary upgrades for Monza to retain its position on the F1 calendar beyond 2024, the ACI boss has expressed his intention to renovate the banked circuit so that it can host non-F1 races in the future again when its current contract ends.
ACI boss is "convinced that it would be very nice to recover the high-speed track" so that races can be organized rather than leaving the circuit to be "industrial archeology".
Damiani says, "the 30-degree Monza banking is a popular historical site within the national park grounds where the circuit resides in its current state is a 'blow to the heart'"
The banked layout of Monza, which essentially added an oval to the current version of the F1 circuit to create a 6.2-mile course with two steeply-banked corners, was used for four grand prizes, but since 1961, when Wolfgang von Trips lost his life in a crash that killed many spectators, it has not been used by F1.
The speeds were deemed too dangerous, even though on a banked section the crash did not occur.
The oval was also the site of The Race Of Two Worlds , an exhibition series that ran in 1957 and 1958 and pitted teams against F1 operations from the American Indycar racing scene.
Until 1969, Monza's banking continued to be used in sports car racing, but the main layout has been used solely for circuit racing ever since.
In the 1990s, there was a threat to demolish the banking sector and use it as a forest site, but this was stopped and sections were also repaved.
Different promotional activities have taken palce on banking while maintaining a limited competitive presence in the form of the Monza Rally, which has included the lower portion of the banking, running anti-clockwise after leaving the Parabolica with a left-hand hairpin.
This event, with its winners including Valentino Rossi, is traditionally a non-championship 'show' rally which attracts star guests from elsewhere in motorsport.
But as part of the series' imposed calendar reorganization, a significantly expanded edition of the Monza Rally becomes the World Rally Championship season finale for 2020, meaning that banking will play a role in the WRC decision-maker.
