Marcus Simmons' Monza F3 diary
Marcus Simmons reflects on the second British F3 round of the year, from a treacherously wet Monza, and recalls the day Kimi Raikkonen tested a Carlin Dallara F3 car with a view to never racing it
Any racing fan with a heart can't fail to be moved when they drive down the tree-lined roads into the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza - especially as it's a relief to have navigated yourself through the tortuous, roadworks-infested, haphazardly-signposted streets of urban Lombardy.
As ever, the boys from the British Formula 3 International Series were gagging to be let loose in the royal park. "This place has something magical," mused Hannes van Asseldonk.
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Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.
Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.
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