Scuderia Ferrari, the focal point of so much of that emotion, will be hoping to give its home crowd tifosi something to cheer when it introduces its new spec power unit to tackle Formula One’s temple of speed.
After being pasted by Mercedes in Belgium, Ferrari is hoping it can make up ground by spending some of its seven remaining “engine tokens” to modify its engine, with each token representing approximately 1.5 per cent of the power unit.
Though it won’t be enough to win the power war with Mercedes – the Germans qualified almost 1.5 seconds ahead of the next fastest car at the similarly power-hungry Spa-Francorchamps – any extra power in the back of the Ferrari car will help it fend off an attack should it squirm its way into the lead.
Ferrari, and particularly Sebastian Vettel, will be aiming to right what it is labelling the wrong of the Belgian Grand Prix that had Vettel fail to score points after a high-speed tyre failure put him out of the race on the final lap.
Pirelliʼs response after the race, which was to blame Ferrari for being too ambitious with its tyre strategy, drew criticism from the Grand Prix Drivers Association, whose chairman, Alex Wurz, called for greater cooperation with the tyre manufacturer to reduce the incidence of explosive failures.
“As drivers, we strongly believe the end of a tyre's performance window can and should not be a tyre delamination in the form of an explosion,” he told the BBC.
“I believe there are technologies which prevent such sudden delamination, but for the short term we need to give Pirelli the freedom and support to introduce any measures they declare safe and fit for F1 racing.”
Wurz’s words were a step down from Vettel’s expletive-laden smackdown on Pirelli immediately after the race, but the drivers remain generally unhappy with Pirelli’s offering to the sport.
To make matters worse, Pirelli is bringing the medium and soft tyres to this year’s Italian Grand Prix, which are the middle two compounds in its four-compound range, in contrast with the medium and hard compounds it bought to Monza last year.
Pirelli was criticised earlier in the year for selecting tyres that were too durable and thus for creating boring racing. Its criticism in Belgium for supplying tyres that didn’t last were too soft, paradoxical though it was, has put Pirelli’s motorsport division in a tricky situation at its home race.
Dwarfing all of the issues to be aired at the Italian Grand Prix is negotiations over the future of the race itself, with Monza’s hosting contract due to expire at the end of next season.
Bernie Ecclestone has made almost exclusively negative sounds about a new deal, culminating in an admission last weekend that though he hopes not to lose the race, he thinks that “there is a good chance we will”.
Monza has hosted a Formula One Grand Prix every year bar one since the championship started in 1950. It is set to celebrate its centenary of existence in 2022, making the quest for a contract extension all the more meaningful.
With wealthy oil-rich nations circling to snatch the slot, and with other Italian circuits weighing up their options, time could be running out to save the Italian Grand Prix’s traditional home and becoming the latest classic race to fall off the calendar.
The 2015 Italian Grand Prix will be a high-stakes affair indeed.
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