For the first time in history, Mugello will host the Formula 1 race, and it will also be the jubilee 1000th F1 race for Ferrari on the track that has been owned by them since 1988.
Although the name ‘Mugello’ has been associated with racing in the Tuscan area since 1914 since drivers raced on the 61-kilometer-long road track, today’s Mugello track opened in June 1974 while Ferrari bought it in 1988.
The track is located in the Tuscan hills and therefore has large altitude changes during the 5245 meter long circuit, and the track is quite narrow and uneven and it will be fascinating to see the fastest cars in the history of Formula 1 racing at fast turns.
The corners are mostly medium and fast, without narrow chicanes, very slow hairpins or large braking zones, and the two fastest corners are Arrabbiata 1 and 2, which today's F1 cars will pass at full throttle at a speed of more than 260 km / h. There are a total of 15 turns, nine right and six left, and the front left tire is the most loaded.
The configuration of the track is very technical because each turn is crucial for different reasons - in a series of turns San Donato - Luco - Poggio Secco at the beginning of the round it is crucial to keep as high a speed as possible at the top of the bend and achieve an ideal line. the second turn, and the Biondetti turns at the end of the lap, which almost form a natural fast chicane, require precision even though in today’s cars they will pass at full throttle.
2020 Tuscan GP Mugello track map with corner names Photo Wikipedia Edited by MAXF1net
Bucina's last turn, a medium-speed left turn, is important because it leads to a very long start-finish route 1141 m long, where speeds of more than 320 km / h are expected, although the cars will use very high levels of downforce.
The asphalt of the Mugello track is very aggressive, but also provides a lot of grip while a lot of medium and fast bends of large radius extremely strain the tires which will wear out quickly and potentially overheat, especially with large amounts of fuel. The track was last given new asphalt in 2011.
For the reasons mentioned above, Pirelli will bring the three hardest tire components (C1, C2, C3) to Mugello, on the track where they first tested the new generation of their F1 tires in August 2010 ahead of returning to the sport in the 2011 F1 season.
In terms of minimum starting pressures, Pirelli prescribed values for the front tires for Mugello between those for Spa and Monza - 1,725 bar - while for the rear tires they allowed lower values than the previous two tracks in Belgium and Italy - 1.4145 bar.
The reason is that the Mugello puts a lot more strain on the front tires because there are no slow bends that heavily strain the rear tires at high accelerations, and in terms of camber allow the same values as in the Monza: -3.00 degrees for the front and -2.00 degrees for the rear the tires.
LAST F1 TRIPS TO MUGELLO
On the eve of the start of this season, Ferrari took a test with the two-year-old SF71H in Austria, while it was not yet known that Mugello would be part of this year's calendar, and the last test involving all teams (except HRT) took place in the fifth month of the F1 season. 2012 where the fastest was Grosjean in Lotus with a time of 1: 21.035.
Webber then said that 10 laps taken on Mugello means like 1000 laps on Abu Dhabi in terms of driving pleasure, and Vettel added that it is a pity they do not have Mugello in the F1 calendar because it is an amazing track with a lot of fast turns.
The first F1 test on Mugello was held on February 17, 1999. when Ferrari and Minardi tested their new F1 cars (the fastest was Schumacher in a Ferrari F399 with a time of 1: 26.704), and tests continued every following year until 2009 when Ferrari's F2008 was also tested by Valentino Rossi (1: 22.550) .
The peak of Mugello's use was in 2002, when Ferrari spent as many as 46 test days on it during the year, two by Sauber and two by McLaren.
The track record is held by Rubens Barrichello, who on February 9, 2004. in a Ferrari F2004. drove the fastest lap 1: 18,704, which this year’s cars should easily surpass in a matter of seconds.
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