#F1 Pirelli #TuscanGP #Ferrari1000 2020 Race Preview. @F1 @MugelloCircuit

After Pierre Gasly claimed a shock-maiden victory at the Italian Grand Prix, round nine of the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship heads to the Autodromo Internazionale Del Mugello in Scarperia e San Piero in Tuscany, Italy this weekend for the Formula 1 Pirelli Tuscan Grand Prix Ferrari 1000 2020. It will be the first time that the FIA Formula One World Championship will race at the famous track. It will also be the 1000^th Grand Prix for Scuderia Ferrari.

 

 

A look at the Autodromo Internazionale Del Mugello

 

 

The Autodromo Internazionale Del Mugello is a permanent race circuit in Scarperia e San Piero in Tuscany, Italy, just 35 kilometres from historical capital Florence. The track is 5.245km (3.259 miles) in length. It has 15 corners and a 1.141km (0.709 mile) long straight. The circuit stadium stand has a capacity of 50,000.

 

Road races were held on the public streets around Mugello from the 1920’s. Giuseppe Campari won there in 1920 and 21, and Emilio Materassi claimed victories in 1925, 1926 and 1928. The Mugello Grand Prix was revived in 1955 and from 1964 to 1969 as a Targa Florio-like road race consisting of eight laps of 66.2 km each, including the Passo della Futa.

 

The anti-clockwise circuit passed through the towns of San Piero a Sieve, Scarperia, Violla, Firenzuola, Selva, San Lucia. It was part of the 1965, 66 and 67 World Sportscar Championships. The last World Championship race was won by the Porsche 910 of Udo Shutz and Gerhard Mitter. After two Porsche victories, 1968 saw the Luciano Bianchi, Nanni Galli and Nino Vaccarella in the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 triumph the Porsche’s Rico Steinemann and Jo Stiffery. In the 1969 event, Arturo Merzario won with an Abarth 2000, and also won again in 1970 with the same car, where Abarth clinched a one-two-three finish with Leo Kinnunen and Gijs Van Lennep taking second and third places, respectively.

 

The 1970 event saw the end of the long 66 km Mugello public street circuit; tragedy struck when a seven-month-old baby was killed when local driver Spartaco Dini heavily crashed his Alfa Romeo GTA into a group of people in Firenzuola during a private test, when the public roads were open (the roads were only closed for qualifying and race day). Four other people, including two young children, were seriously injured. Although, there had only been one previous fatality at the original Mugello track (that of Gunther Klass in 1967), the incident severely damaged the event’s reputation, and the 1970 event turned out to be the final one held on the public street circuit, which was won once again by Merzario. After the incident, Dini spent two months in prison, and after his time served, he left Italy and did not return for several years.

 

The current Mugello circuit was built in 1973 and opened in 1974. It was 5 kilometres east from the easternmost part of the original street circuit. The track was used for Formula 1 in-season testing during the 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship season, by all teams except HRT. The circuit’s unofficial track record of a 1:21.035 was set by Lotus F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean in the test. The track was given high praise from-then Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber saying, “did 10 dry laps today around Mugello, which is the same as doing 1000 laps around the Abu Dhabi track in terms of satisfaction”.

 

The first race of the 2008-09 A1GP season was meant to be held at Mugello on the September 21, 2008 but was cancelled due to the delay in building the chassis for the new cars.

 

Grand Prix Motorcycle racing hosts an annual event at the circuit with MotoGP and smaller classes. In 2007 and 08, the German DTM Championship held an annual event. The track is owned by Scuderia Ferrari, who purchased it in 1988 and uses it for Formula One testing.

 

The current Mugello circuit layout is 5.245 kilometres (3.259 miles) in length with 15 corners and runs in a clockwise direction.

 

Race distance is 309.455 kilometres (192.286 miles) in length with 59 laps in total.

 

Romain Grosjean holds the unofficial fastest lap record with a 1:21.035 set at the 2012 in-season testing event in his Lotus F1 Team-Renault E20.

 

Onboard lap of the Autodromo Internazionale Del Mugello

 

 

Let’s take a ride of the 5.245km Autodromo Internazionale Del Mugello with Marc Gene piloting the 1995 V12-powered Ferrari 412t2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md-e4c3PSvI

 

Tyres

 

 

F1’s sole tyre supplier Pirelli will be bringing with them to the Tuscan Grand Prix, the white-branded P Zero C1 Hards, the yellow-marked P Zero C2 Mediums and the red side-walled P Zero C3 Soft tyre compounds along with the green-marked Intermediates and blue-branded Full Wet compounds in case of rain.

 

All drivers will have eight sets of the C4 red side-walled Softs, three sets of the yellow C3 Mediums and two sets of the white C3 Hard rubber.

 

DRS Zones

There will only be one DRS Zone at the Autodromo Internazionale Del Mugello this weekend on the main straight. The detection point is at the entry of turn 15 with the activation zone 175 metres on the SC1 line.

 

Pitlane Speed Limits

Pitlane speed limits will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.

 

ICYMI – Italian GP Race Report: Gasly claims shock victory

 

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly clinched a shock maiden Italian GP victory in a dramatic race ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, with early leader Lewis Hamilton penalised for safety car infringement.

 

Sainz hunted down Gasly aggressively over the second half of the Grand Prix at Monza, which was red-flagged due to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc’s heavy shunt at the Parabolica, but he could not find a way to get by to finish second and in-front of Racing Point’s Lance Stroll.

 

Hamilton dominated the early proceedings, but a penalty for pitting on lap 20 when the pit-lane was closed just before the Grand Prix’ second fifth had been completed dropped the Briton to last place and left him to push hard to claim seventh.

 

When the 53 lap Italian GP began, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas looked to react slower to team-mate Hamilton on the front-row and was swiftly passed by Sainz on the run-down to the Variante Del Rettifilo Chicane, where the Finn was also under-pressure from McLaren’s Lando Norris.

 

The Mercedes and McLaren tangled at the turn two apex and their fight continued through Curva Grande, with Norris then hounding Bottas around the outside at the Variante Della Roggia Chicane.

 

The pairing made more contact – wheel-to-wheel – as Norris pushed by, with Bottas then dropping behind Racing Point’s Sergio Perez and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo as he failed to get up to speed on the run to the fast Ascari, suspecting he picked up a puncture, which Mercedes ensured the Finn that was not the case.

 

At the front, Hamilton comfortably moved 1.3 seconds clear of Sainz by the end of the opening lap.

 

The Briton went about extending his lead throughout the initial stint, with Sainz quickly building a gap over his team-mate, who was soon under-pressure by Perez.

 

Hamilton continued increasing his lead over the next 18 tours, which reach 12.5 seconds by the time when the race turned upside down as Kevin Magnussen’s Haas VF-20 racer came to a halt near the pit-lane, which deployed the safety car.

 

The Dane’s Haas had to be pushed into the pit-lane from the race marshals, which meant the pit-lane was closed – eleven seconds after the safety car was released – but Hamilton came in for a fresh set of C3 yellow side-walled mediums.

 

The rest of the field remained out on track – apart from Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi, who was also placed under investigation alongside the race leader, with Mercedes telling Hamilton to expect a penalty.

 

The punishment did come but after the race was suspended following Leclerc’s heavy shunt at the exit of the Parabolica.

 

The field came in once Magnussen’s VF-20 racer was well out of the way and the pit-lane was re-opened, which boosted several cars that stopped just before the safety car deployment – including Gasly, Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen, Leclerc and Stroll, who did not come in during the initial interruption.

 

At the end of the first lap after the restart on the 24^th tour – Leclerc lost the rear of his SF1000 racer as he accelerated out of the historic long right-hander and as the Monegasque-youngster corrected the slide, his Ferrari snapped left and darted into the barriers at high-speed.

 

Leclerc was able to climb out of his car and went to the medical centre for checks before being released, with the race suspended for 25 minutes as the barrier was fixed, with the order being Hamilton, Stroll, Gasly, Raikkonen, Giovinazzi, Sainz and Norris.

 

During the delay, Hamilton was hit with the same 10 second stop-go that Giovinazzi was given before the red flag, and he climbed out of his F1 W11 EQ Power+ racer to speak with his race engineer, then scooted down to chat to the Mercedes strategists and senior team leaders before heading to race control at the main Monza pit building.

 

When the race restarted on the 28^th lap, Stroll made a slow run off the line, which meant Gasly could jump ahead of the Racing Point and chase Hamilton, who pitted to serve his penalty at the end of the second “opening lap”.

 

This left Gasly running comfortably clear from Raikkonen, with Giovinazzi then falling out of the leading battle to take his penalty, with Sainz overtaking Stroll – who cut the Variante Della Roggia Chicane after suffering a lock-up on the first lap of the restart to drop behind the Alfa C39’s into the Variante Del Rettifilo on the 29^th tour.

 

Gasly was then focused on building the gap, while Sainz hunted down and attacked Raikkonen into the Variante Del Rettifilo on lap 34, barging his way through at the apex of the second corner and went chasing off after the AlphaTauri.

 

At the beginning of the 35^th tour, Gasly lead Sainz by 4.1 seconds, with the two new race leaders lapping in the 1:24’s.

 

Sainz momentarily made it into the 1:23’s as he chased the leading Frenchman, who was calm out-front even when his lead was slowly being cut down over the remaining 18 tours.

 

The Spaniard consistently ate into Gasly’s gap but was hit by the AT01’s dirty air and struggled to get into DRS range.

 

He eventually managed to, but on the final lap – with Gasly weaving his AlphaTauri to try and break the slip-stream where he could – and Sainz was never able to make it close enough to attempt a move for the lead.

 

Gasly held onto claim his maiden victory at the Italian GP by 0.415 seconds ahead of Sainz, with Stroll third and a further 3.358 seconds off.

 

Norris came home fourth as Raikkonen dropped to 13^th on the soft rubber, with the rest of the front-running drivers using mediums, ahead of fifth-placed Bottas, who struggled to make any moves forward throughout the entire afternoon.

 

Ricciardo ended the race sixth and in-front of Hamilton who recovered to seventh, Renault team-mate Esteban Ocon who took eighth, Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat who was ninth and Perez completing the top ten.

 

Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi and George Russell were 11^th and 14^th respectively in the Grove-based squad’s farewell race for Deputy Team Principal Claire Williams and the Williams family after selling the team.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean and the aforementioned Raikkonen were in-between the Williams duo in 12^th and 13^th.

 

Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon, who tangled with Italian GP racer-winner Gasly at the Variante Del Rettifilo in an incident that was not investigated, finished 15^th, whilst team-mate Max Verstappen retired shortly after the second restart when Honda spotted a power-unit problem.

 

Ferrari’s home Grand Prix got off to a horrible start before Leclerc’s crash when Sebastian Vettel encountered a brakes failure at the first corner in the early stages and the German retired in the pits after smashing through the Variante Del Rettifilo’s run-off area marker boards.

 

The Situation

 

 

Lewis Hamilton heads to Tuscany sitting on top of the Driver’s Championship with 164 points and has a 47 points lead over Valtteri Bottas who is second on 117 points while Max Verstappen is a further 54 behind the Briton in third on 110 points.

 

Mercedes comes to the Autodromo Internazionale Del Mugello on top of the Constructors Championship with 281 points and a 123-point advantage over nearest rival Aston Martin Red Bull Racing who is second on 158 points while McLaren Racing is third and a further 183 behind the Silver Arrows on 98 points.

 

Quick-Fire Paddock News

 

 

• Sergio Perez announced that he will be leaving BWT Racing Point F1 Team at the end of the current campaign. The Mexican stated that he has no “plan B” at the moment for a 2021 drive. Sebastian Vettel is heavily rumoured to be joining the Silverstone-based outfit when it becomes re-branded as Aston Martin Racing from 2021 onwards.

 

 

• Scuderia Ferrari will be running a special “burgundy livery” ahead of it’s 1000^th Grand Prix this weekend in Mugello. Both SF1000’s taking to the track will be in the burgundy colour of the 125S (Tipo 125), the first Grand Prix car to carry the Ferrari name.

 

• To celebrate Ferrari’s 1000^th Grand Prix, son of seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher, Mick will be driving his father’s legendary F2004 racer around Mugello, the car, which gave the German his fifth World Driver’s Championship for the Scuderia and his seventh world title overall.

 

• Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen was gutted and wondered what might have been after his retirement from last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix. The Dane showed some promising pace before his VF-20 racer came to a halt on the twentieth lap bringing out the safety car, which changed the complexion of the race and eventually allowed AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly to claim a maiden victory, with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz second and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll third. Magnussen firstly suffered front wing damage after a three-wide moment, that forced him to pit. The Dane said: “It’s not great of course, and especially as we saw how good the pace was. We were matching the McLarens on pace so I would like to have seen what we could have done in the race. Of course, including me there were a few guys retiring and it was a pretty eventful race so just the kind of race I would have like to have been part of.”

 

• Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto denied that engine guru Andy Cowell will not be joining the Scuderia and swapping silver for red. The Prancing Horse are suffering their worst season in its history, currently sitting sixth in the Constructors Championship after a dismal home Grand Prix at Monza, which saw both Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel retiring. Although, a brakes failure for Vettel and a heavy crash for Leclerc put them out of the race last Sunday, the lack of engine power is one of the key issues with the SF1000 as they have struggled with outright pace. While Andy Cowell, one of the men who saw the creation of the Mercedes dominant 1.6L Turbocharged V6 power-train – the most successful engine in Grand Prix history – announced earlier this year that he would be leaving the Brackley-based outfit. Binotto said on the engineer making the switch to the Scuderia “In terms of new people joining Ferrari in the future, I think that in F1 you can never be satisfied, so if there is anyone that can bring added value to the team it’s our responsibility to look for it and eventually to do it,” Binotto said. “You mention Andy Cowell – as far as I’m aware, he’s still working in Mercedes currently. Certainly, there are great names in F1. Is there someone joining Ferrari very soon? It’s not the case.” Binotto concluded.

 

1000 Grands Prix for Ferrari

 

 

Scuderia Ferrari are the oldest, most-prestigious, and successful Formula One team, having competed in every world championship since the 1950 FIA Formula One World Championship season. The team was founded by Enzo Ferrari, initially to race cars from Alfa Romeo, though by 1947, Ferrari began building its own cars. Ferrari has the record for most World Constructor’s Championships with 16, the last of which came in 2008.

 

The team also has scored 15 World Driver’s Championships to its name. The driver’s to have won world titles for the Maranello-marque came from Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher, and Kimi Raikkonen. Raikkonen is currently the last driver to win the driver’s title for the team back in 2007 by a single-point over McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. Schumacher was the outfit’s most successful driver. Joining the team in 1996 and leaving in 2006 where he won five successive World Driver’s Championships and 72 Grands Prix for the Maranello-squad. The German’s titles came between 2000-2004 and the team won consecutive Constructor’s Championship from 1999-2004. This was the Prancing Horse’s most successful period.

 

The team overall has scored 239 race victories, 778 podiums, 9,195.5 World Constructor’s Championship points and 10.097.27 World Driver’s Championship points with 229 pole positions and 260 fastest laps.

 

Ferrari has by-far the largest following in the sport with the most passionate fans called “The Tifosi”, who are very dedicated and flood race-tracks around the world in red.

 

To dive further into the history watch this video courtesy of Formula 1 of how Ferrari turned into the most famous and successful team in the sport: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBFWJNX2gHo

 

Click here for Formula 1 2020 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings

 

The Formula 1 Pirelli Tuscan Grand Prix Ferrari 1000 2020 weekend begins Friday September 11 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday September 12 and will the 59 lap Race Sunday September 13.