Rumblings of discontent have turned into a pandemonium of protest in the offices of the Province of Monza. Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone is reported to have signed a seven-year deal, beginning in 2011 with an option for another five years, to stage a Formula One Grand Prix around the historic sites of the City of Rome. Consequently, Monza and a number of its leading citizens have heeded the call to stop the Italian Grand Prix being stolen away and transferred to the Italian capital.
According to Ecclestone, an F1 race in the Eternal City, with its Forum, the Coliseum, and other historic monuments, will be spectacular. However, the fear of many northern Italians is that, should the switch take place, their beloved autodrome would die, becoming no more than a cathedral in a desert.
“If they thieve our GP from us,” thundered the president of Monza province, Dario Allevi, “we will reply with fiscal disobedience.” Already, Monza’s mayor, Marco Mariani, has called on Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to help save Monza. Meanwhile, the organizer of the GP of Rome, Maurizio Flammini, and the city’s mayor, Gianni Alemanno, contend that the two races can coexist. At the Province of Monza they believe that might be possible on paper, but in reality a GP of Rome would transform the Monza circuit into a money-losing proposition.
According to Carlo Valli, president of the Monza Chamber of Commerce, “The financial damage of any change from Monza to Rome would be incalculable.” His organization estimates it would cost his members three billion Euros (about five billion US$) in lost business. It would be a sad day indeed if Monza ever dropped off the Grand Prix radar, for the circuit is Italy’s Autodromo Nazionale and is, of course, steeped in motor racing legend after hosting no fewer than 89 GPs on its hallowed asphalt.
The first sod was turned back in 1922 by two great racing drivers of the day, Vincenzo Lancia and Felice Nazzaro, which in modern terms would be like having Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button officiate. It took 3,500 men three months to build the track that became only the third dedicated racing circuit in the world after Brooklands and Indianapolis. The first race, later that year, drew an astounding 150,000 people to see Pietro Bordino win in a Fiat.
The historic circuit has been retouched on occasion over the years, but its basic layout remains much the same as it was in 1922. The legendary high banking, built in 1955, did not last long as it was just too dangerous. Nonetheless, too much human drama, tradition, and history permeate Monza to abandon it for little more than a TV-pleasing gimmick like holding the Grand Prix of Italy through the historic streets of Rome.
by Robert Newman
