Italy preview quotes: McLaren

"The track is also really hard on the cars, with the bumps and the long straights at full throttle. You tend to use the kerbs quite a lot and so have a slightly softer set-up so the car rides well over them.

"After my retirement from the Turkish race, my back was a bit sore, so we decided that I would rest to get properly fit for this race rather than test, but I am totally fine, there are no problems from the incident and I am looking forward to getting back in the car. It has been feeling really strong recently, so I hope we can have more of a race in Monza than in Istanbul."

Pedro de la Rosa: "We had a good test last week in Monza, Gary and I completed over 1500km and were able to work through a lot of the preparations for the race this weekend. This included tyre selection with Michelin, proving aero packages and set-up work. The latter is always quite tricky here, so I had a big focus on this at the test.

"Monza demands high speed and braking stability, so this also has to be taken into account. The track surface at Monza has been re-laid recently, and it now has quite different characteristics to the previous surface, which of course has an effect on tyre performance and wear, and we also covered this in detail at the test.

"It was our first time on the track with the V8 engines, and the top speeds are around the 340km/h mark, which is not significantly less than last year. "

Martin Whitmarsh, CEO Formula One: "The Italian Grand Prix this weekend marks the end of the 2006 European season, and all at Team McLaren Mercedes would like to leave Europe on a high. The race team arrives in northern Italy following an encouraging resumption of testing at Monza last week, where the test team completed a solid two day session, and we are now looking forward to racing the cars in anger on the circuit.

"Monza sees us run with the lowest downforce configuration of the year, to allow us to maximize speed on the long stretches of full throttle around the Italian track. We use a bespoke aero package for the race, with specific front and rear wings and the removal of the winglets from the top body, which the test team ran with Pedro and Gary last week at Monza with some positive results."

Norbert Haug, Vice President, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: "Compared to the other circuits on the Formula One calendar the Monza track is the most untypical one. Nevertheless the Italian Grand Prix on this circuit is a classic and the race is the one in which the highest average speeds are recorded.

"In 2006 about 240 kph on average over the race distance should be attained, and also this year top speeds of more than 340 kph can be expected on the startfinish straight. This will be only about 25 kph less than those of September 2005 despite the fact that this year the V8 Engines have about 200hp less than last year's V10s.

"Three quarters of the lap will be run under full throttle in a Formula One car, which is the highest percentage achieved during the race season and generates the highest strain on the engines.

"The cars are traditionally set up for the lowest downforce which even a non specialist can realize from the angle of the front and rear wings. In spite of this the braking and turning in characteristics and the skilled use of the kerbs are decisive factors to produce a good lap time. There are no prizes for those who are only fast in a straight line."