Five Fast Facts about the Italian Gran Prix

Since the Formula 1 world championship began in 1950, the Italian Grand Prix has been held at Monza every year except one: 1980, when work to upgrade the circuit meant Imola hosted it instead. But the first Italian GP took place in the town of Montichiari near Brescia in 1921. Frenchman Jules Goux won driving a 3.0-litre Ballot on Pirelli tyres. The following year, the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza was built as only the third permanent racetrack in the world, after Brooklands and Indianapolis. One-off races would also be staged in the cities of Livorno (1937), Milan (1947), and Turin (1948), but Monza would become F1's spiritual home in Italy.

The original Monza was a monster of a circuit, combining the road course that forms the basis of the modern track with a banked oval. This 10-kilometre layout was incredibly fast but also very dangerous. A dark day in 1933, when three drivers lost their life, led to the use of the Florio circuit: a shorter and slower configuration using only part of the oval and featuring five chicanes. The oval was actually reconstructed for 1955 with steeper concrete banking: this still stands preserved today, but stopped being used for F1 after 1961. The Rettifilo, Roggia and Ascari chicanes have been permanent fixtures on the road course since the 1970s, but Monza's high-speed character remains.

The Italian GP has set many records over the years, most of them related to speed. It's also where Formula 1's closest ever finish took place in 1971, when Peter Gethin won by just 0.01 seconds over second-placed Ronnie Petersen. The top five – completed by Francois Cevert, Mike Hailwood and Howden Ganley – were covered by just 0.61 seconds after a slipstream battle until the finish that also helped make this the fastest ever F1 race at the time. With the chicanes being introduced soon afterwards, Gethin's incredible average speed record of 242.615kph stood for 30 years, until Michael Schumacher's 2003 victory at Monza for Ferrari.

The Italian GP is the home race of Pirelli, which has its headquarters just 20 minutes from the Monza gates in the outskirts of Milan. The company was founded in the heart of the city in 1872, before moving to its current home in the Bicocca district in 1907 – and when the Monza circuit was built 15 years later, Pirelli-equipped Fiat 804s finished first and second in the very first race. Since then, there has been plenty of shared history and the 2022 Italian GP was the scene of double celebrations: 100 years of Monza and 150 for Pirelli.

No constructor has won the Italian Grand Prix more often than Ferrari (20 wins) and no driver has won for Ferrari as often as Michael Schumacher. The German achieved all five of his Italian GP victories with the Scuderia. The first in 1996 in his first season in red was a sign of things to come. The last came in 2006 on the same weekend that Schumacher announced his (first) retirement. Since then, that tally of five wins has been matched by Lewis Hamilton – already back in 2018. Will the Mercedes man have the chance to move clear with victory number six?