As the home of Ferrari-supporting tifosi, Monza is always a bit special. The crowd only have eyes for the red cars and the men driving them; everyone else is the enemy. The Italian Grand Prix has generated some of the greatest races in the history of the sport, and it has also seen appalling tragedy. Italy's only world champion Alberto Ascari was killed while testing a Ferrari sportscar at the track in 1955, while six years later Wolfgang Von Trips perished when his Ferrari was pitched into the crowd after a collision. Eight spectators also died.

The famous old banking was abandoned in the Sixties for safety reasons and the race became a flat out blast around the road section of the track. 1971 produced one of the greatest contests in grand prix history. Peter Gethin triumphed by 0.1s in a five-car slipstreaming battle. However, home-town heroes Ferrari have also been at the heart of some of the great track's greatest days.

Jody Scheckter won the world championship there in 1979 for the prancing horse, as team-mate Gilles Villeneuve dutifully rode shotgun to cement the team's championship title for Ferrari. 1988 saw another emotional 1-2 for Ferrari as Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto pressured Ayrton Senna into a mistake. Berger's victory came days after the death of Enzo Ferrari and prevented McLaren from taking a clean sweep in all 16 races that year.