A Formula 1 throttle pedal gets its biggest workout of the year at Monza and, for three-quarters of every 3.6-mile lap, each driver pushes theirs to its limits. To borrow parlance from a driver's lexicon, each straight must be 'maximised' to tempt the speedometer to tick over one more digit before the brake pedal is similarly abused into the corners.
Each year at the Italian Grand Prix, a single extra Newton of drag is about as unwelcome as an ant at a picnic, and hence all the cars are trimmed out as much as they possibly can be to service each team's desire to have the slipperiest car of all. But at the same time, they actually need to have sufficient grip to navigate three Variantes, two Lesmos and a Parabolica without having to tip-toe around them.
Monza-spec upgrades are some of the most distinctive of the season, characterised by skinny rear wings and trimmed front wings to balance that out. Armed with our usual array of photographs and illustrations from Giorgio Piola, we can delve into how the designers tackled Monza in 2019.
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