By Adam Tate, Associate Editor
Monza’s place in Formula 1 as the home of the Italian Grand Prix looks to be secure after event organizers and Bernie Ecclestone came to an agreement during negotiations for a new race contract.
The circuit is F1’s most historic track, having first held the Italian Grand Prix in 1922 and has been on the calendar for every season of the championship, bar 1980 when it briefly lost the race to Imola.
Ecclestone had been upping the pressure on Angelo Sticchi and the ACI (Automobile Club d’Italia), by suggesting that the race could move to Imola again if Monza refused to pay up, but they insisted the race stay at the venerable track for the foreseeable future and guaranteed that it will for the next three seasons with the contract they are due to sign later this weekend.
The move thankfully ends the fraught tensions of whether the Italian Grand Prix would remain on F1’s ever shifting calendar. The Italian Grand Prix, now in it’s 86th running has for the vast majority of its existence been held at Autodromo Nationale Monza and long may it reign there, this September and for many years to come.
