The Monza legend is unrivalled: 104 years of speed, passion and tears

3 September 1922: The Italian Pietro Bordino won the first car race at the new Autodromo in Monza’s Royal Park. The ‘Red Devil from Turin’, as his fans reverently called him, was driving a Fiat 501.

Just one week later, on 10 September 1922, the second Italian Grand Prix took place in front of 200,000 fans (the first had been held in Montichiari in 1921). Fiat brought 5,000 factory workers to the circuit on a special train, and they promptly witnessed a one-two victory for their make – with Pietro Bordino ahead of Felice Nazarro in their Fiat 804s.

The decision to build a racecourse was taken in January 1922 by the Milan Automobile Club, to mark the club’s 25th anniversary.

The aims were to promote technical progress, showcase Italian car makes, and find a home for the Italian Grand Prix.

The track layout was designed by the architect Alfredo Rosselli, whilst Piero Puricelli’s construction firm carried out the work; the entire project was privately funded by investors who believed in Monza’s future.

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Rosselli had envisaged a 14-kilometre circuit, but this would have required felling too many trees, so it was shortened to around 10 kilometres.

Rosselli’s idea of combining a classic circuit with an oval remained. Monza became the world’s third permanent race circuit with an international flavour, after Indianapolis and Brooklands – built by 3,500 workers with the help of 80 goods wagons.

Work began on 15 May 1922 and was completed by the end of August, in time for the inaugural race on 3 September.

Monza in den 20er Jahren

Foto: Pirelli

100 years of Monza means 100 years of speed, passion, tears of joy and dismay – breathtaking victory laps and dark moments.

The Monza circuit is situated within Europe’s fourth-largest park (688 hectares of land); however, the Parco di Monza is the largest walled park in Europe. The park was completed in 1808 after three years of work and is – by way of comparison – two and a half times the size of New York’s Central Park. There are around 100,000 trees in the park, 26 farms, three mills and a deer park (no, really!).

Ein Teil der alten Renngaragen steht noch heute

Foto: Grand Prix Photo

Moments of triumph at Monza have always been closely linked to moments of tragedy: the American Phil Hill shed bitter tears in 1961, as his title victory was preceded by the fatal accident involving Count Berghe von Trips and fourteen spectators.

The Italian-born American Mario Andretti clinched the title in 1978 after the race had to be interrupted due to a crash at the start; on the night of Sunday into Monday, his Lotus team-mate Ronnie Peterson died of a fat embolism.

Fifty-two racing drivers and 35 spectators have lost their lives over these 104 years, including the charismatic Alberto Ascari, the most enigmatic of all world champions. The circumstances surrounding his fatal crash on 26 May 1955 were never fully clarified, just a few days after he had crashed his racing car into the harbour basin in Monaco.

In a move entirely out of character for the superstitious Ascari, he had borrowed Eugenio Castellotti’s helmet during a sports car test at Monza and asked to drive the car. To this day, the legend persists that Ascari tried to swerve to avoid a man who was crossing the track without permission at the Curva Vialone. In Italy, people still talk about how that man is said to have confessed to a priest on his deathbed – that he was the cause of the fatal accident. It’s all hearsay.

Giuseppe Campari lost his life at Monza. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Italian was a star, as feared in a single-seater as he was in a sports car. Campari was no pushover behind the wheel, feared by his rivals, laughing defiantly in the face of every danger.

‘El Negher’ was a variation in the Milanese dialect of ‘il negro’ (the black man), because Campari had a dark complexion and turned a deep brown in the sun. At Monza in 1933, Campari’s luck ran out – a fatal accident after he lost control of his car on an oil spill.

At Monza in 1970, fans mourned the Mainz-born Austrian Jochen Rindt.

The atmosphere at the Royal Park is unrivalled; every motorsport fan must experience this circuit at least once in their lifetime.