MONZA, Italy – It feel likes a typical, warm, sunny Thursday of the Italian Grand Prix weekend here in Monza. But as I think about the themes of the weekend, one thing comes through predominantly: The number of anniversaries, good and bad. They are coming in from all sides.
Obviously the biggest anniversary of the weekend in the world is the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack in New York City. But that in itself draws to mind the same weekend here in Monza 10 years ago. It was a horrendously black weekend in the racing community.
Luca Bruno/Associated PressFernando Alonso, the Ferrari driver, seen on the television monitors in the media center at Monza during the Thursday afternoon press conference.
First, the attack on the World Trade Center happened on the Tuesday before the race. Most of the F1 people flew out to Monza on the Wednesday or Thursday. I recall feeling a little wary of taking a flight, as most people were. But when I did take the flight, I found the airplane from Paris to Milan almost empty, which had its advantages.
But arriving in the paddock the feeling was horrendous. The Ferraris would paint the noses of their cars black, and Michael Schumacher was so badly affected that he had a horrible race. But the worst of the weekend for the racing community came with the news that Alex Zanardi had had an accident in Champ Cars and lost both of his legs. We feared the worst, but he pulled through. It was very dark, however, with that along with the twin towers assault.
I was reminded during the press conference on Thursday that it is also the 150th anniversary of the Republic of Italy this year, and Monza being Ferrari’s home race, that anniversary is also in the air.
But the biggest Monza anniversary has to be that of the tragic and extraordinary weekend of the Italian Grand Prix that took place on Sept. 10th, 1961. It was during that race 50 years ago that Wolfgang von Trips, the German driver who was leading the championship in a Ferrari, had a terrible accident and lost his life. Eleven spectators also were killed on the spot, and others died later. Phil Hill went on to win the race and become the first and only American-born world champion.
Hill died August 28, 2008, and as it turned out I spoke to his son Derek, at Spa on that same day two weeks ago. But I will talk more about some of these things in my race previews that will be online on Friday and in print on Saturday.
Oh, there also is a 27th birthday for Vitaly Petrov, and a 75th race celebration for Sebastian Vettel. As one of my upcoming articles also will show, it is also the 50th Italian Grand Prix for the doyen of Formula One photographers, Rainer Schlegelmilch.
That’s a lot of anniversaries.