By Red Bull
September 6 2006

Red Bull Racing & sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso ask their key staff for their "Memories of Monza". The circuit gets a big thumbs up from veterans like Berger & Coulthard, and rookies like Liuzzi and Speed alike.

Gerhard Berger:

1988 is obviously my best memory here, as winning at Monza in a Ferrari is a special experience. It was the first race after the death of Enzo Ferrari and the podium was very emotional. I remember seeing the crowd running towards it. It was frightening as it looked like they were going to kill one another to get near to us. The memory is still crystal clear and I still enjoy thinking about it. The night before the race I was in Fiorano and I said to Piccinini ‘I’m just dashing down to Monza to win the race.’ It was meant as a joke in the year when McLaren had won everything, He said, ‘well, if you win the race, you can keep the car.’ The first thing I said when I got out of the car in parc ferme was, ‘just put the car in the trailer and bring it to Austria!’

David Coulthard:

Monza’s one of the great circuits still on the calendar and I’m privileged to have won a Grand Prix there. When you walk the track, you can still see the old banked sections that used to be part of the circuit, there’s a real feel of F1 history about the place, which I like. The GP itself always attracts the most fanatical fans - I got bombarded with cans and bottles in ‘98 by irate Tifosi. They thought I’d deliberately caused a shunt with Michael at the previous race in Spa. In fairness to the fans, Michael seemed to think the same thing at the time (but fortunately had nothing to throw except expletives) and subsequently accepted it was an accident. All in all Monza’s one of the classics and I’m looking forward to getting out there again.

Christian Horner:

Extremely happy memories of Monza, having won the race four times in F3000. It was the scene of Tonio’s most dominant victory when he won by about a lap in 2004. The two years before that we won it with Wirdheim. The 2002 memory was tainted by Enge being caught well over the legal drug limit!  (Editor’s comment: Once could say that Horner’s team rolled up in Monza, but unfortunately, Enge had already rolled up in Hungary!) But, back to the future, we had an encouraging test at Monza last week, so let’s see what this weekend brings.

Chrstian Klien

I raced there in Formula Renault. It was a great feeling, especially the very high top speed. Basically, when you get there, you take off all the wing and just go as fast as you can. I’ve always had good memories from there as I love going as fast as possible.  I think it was last year at Monza where I first did over 360 km/h at a test session and that was an amazing feeling. You do really feel the difference and the buzz. Usually going over 300 is not very impressive from inside the car, but at Monza your helmet is moving about in the cockpit and you really feel the speed, but eventually you get used to it. It’s so fast that, on the slowing down lap, you almost feel you can step out of the cockpit when you are still doing 100 km/h!

Tonio Liuzzi

The first time I ever went to Monza was to race there in F3000. It was a strange feeling as I had never experienced driving at such high speeds before I got there. It felt weird at first and to be honest, in the beginning it is actually a bit scary. You are a bit apprehensive, not because of a feeling of danger, but because it is harder to find the braking points and the corners come up to meet you much more quickly. When you are doing 300 km/h an extra 30 km/h makes quite a difference, but you soon get used to it and I actually it is really fun, really cool. Driving the car with very low downforce is exciting as you slide in all the corners which is a nice feeling. I guess I got the hang of it anyway, as I won the race.

Massimo Rivola:

Monza marks the first time I have seen the F1 Teams in action, “live”, with all the behind the scenes action. It was a Monza test in 1999 and our drivers were Luca Badoer and Marc Gene. I was working for Minardi and that was my first time at the track, after two years spent behind a boring desk in the Marketing Department. I say boring because I immediately realized where was the real action in F1…it was definitely amazing and from that moment on, I knew this had to be my life. 

Scott Speed:

I’m not old enough to have memories of my own about this place. But every time I come to Monza I feel the history here. I look at what’s left of the old circuit and think, how did the guys race in those old cars around that banked track. Awesome!