Irvine Wary as Monza Poised to Break Speed Record

Eddie Irvine believes that Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, likely to become the fastest race in the history of Formula One if weather permits, could do with slowing down.

"I wouldn't like to have a brake failure or a suspension failure," said the Briton after the first free practice session on Friday. The speeds we're doing down the straights are way, way too high. If you have a problem, it is going to be a big problem.

"Monza should stay on the calendar but I think we should try and put a few more corners in because there's plenty of space to put corners in," added the Jaguar driver. "Imola has great chicanes, I don't know why we can't put chicanes like that in here. These ones we have here are not proper chicanes."

Monza is the fastest circuit on the calendar, an historic racetrack first opened for motor racing in 1922 with banked and elevated sections, and action has been taken over the years to increase safety and keep speeds in check.

The banking is no longer used and the track has been modified since the previous fastest and closest race in Formula One history was run there in 1971. Briton Peter Gethin won that epic, the last before chicanes were introduced, in a BRM with an average speed over the 55 laps of 150.76 mph. He beat Sweden's Ronnie Peterson by just 0.01 of a second.

Even the fifth placed finisher, New Zealand's Howden Ganley, was just 0.61 behind Gethin at a time when cars could slipstream down the long straights.

Rising Speeds

Modern Formula One cars are far quicker and far more responsive, able to decelerate from the 350km/h they hit on the straight at Monza down to 80 at the first corner in the space of about 3.5 seconds.

Britain's Autosport magazine calculated this week that, based on a 2.226 percent rise registered in the average speed at Spa, the second fastest circuit on the calendar, the record would be broken with a similar performance improvement.

Irvine was concerned about the risk of a brake failure because Monza is harder on brakes than anywhere. Technical experts said straight-line speed was not a major concern.

"I think having fast races in itself is not a problem," British American Racing (BAR) technical director told a news conference when asked about the prospect of Gethin's 30-year- old record being broken.

"It's really just whether the race is appropriate to the circuit and that's the issue, not so much the average speed. It's what is the cornering speed, this is where the dangers are...I haven't been asked the question: how do you slow cars down. It's quite tricky.

"We've seen quite a big increase in engine power over the last two years with essentially the same aerodynamic regulations. It's either got to be the aerodynamicists' job to slow the cars down or a change in the engine regulations."