Monza, the cathedral of speed, sits in a royal park overlooking the outskirts of Milan, and it has hosted the Italian Grand Prix almost every season since the inaugural Formula 1 race in 1950.
Monza’s early glory
The first Italian Grand Prix took place on a 10‑km candle‑lit track that showed the fledgling sport’s raw power. In that 1950 race, Giuseppe Farina won the world championship race in his Alfa Rome, making him the only driver to win the title on home soil.
Pictures from that era, like the 1950 photo of Farina standing beside his Alfa Rome in traffic of fans and photographers, reveal the sense of ritual and certainty that built the sport.
Controversy, triumph and tragedy
Monza’s long history offers a montage of memorable moments: the 1961 tragedy that killed 14 people when Wolfgang von Trips’s Ferrari collided with Jim Clark’s Lotus and sent a car straight into a crowd of spectators at the Parabolica; the 1978 chaotic start where Ronnie Peterson’s Lotus crashed against the wall and later succumbed to injuries; and the 1988 showdown where Senna’s attempt to lap Jean‑Louis Schlesser left a dramatic one‑lap reference point on the track.
In recent years Monza proved its continuing relevance – in 2000 German driver Michael Schumacher’s victory on home soil was a vital piece of his record of five consecutive titles; in 2011 the slim first chicane produced several collisions and left crew “in the wrong direction”; while in 2021 Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s clash proxied a protective halo at the first chicane, so that behind the scene, all‑fate and risk stands out.
2024 – a new chapter
In 2024 Charles Leclerc returned to the start‑finish straight with his own football‑style hand brand on his Ferrari and won the Italian Grand Prix, bringing his two‑victory back‑on‑Monza in 2019 and marking a significant milestone for the Italian team and the F1 global schedule.
From that 1950 image of fans surrounding the slow‑start corner to the 2024 Ferrari fan attendance, the Monza image set is a photographic record of hard‑take victory, victory and worst of conditions in that motorsport’s history.
