Here is VROOM, the Pirelli Trophy for the Italian GP in Monza

The presentation on Friday

Vrooom is an onomatopoeia which imitates the sound of an engine accelerating or revving at high speed, typically associated with vehicles such as cars, motorcycles or other motorized vehicles. It is often used to describe the sound of a powerful engine accelerating rapidly and can be used to evoke the idea of ​​speed, energy or action. The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza is also known as the Temple of Speed: it is no coincidence that here, in 2003, the record for the Formula 1 race with the highest average speed (247.585 km/h) was set by Michael Schumacher with Ferrari. What better opportunity to give the name “VROOOM” to the trophy that, on Sunday 1 September, will be awarded on the podium to the first three drivers and the representative of the winning team?

Following a tradition that began in 2021, the trophy of the Italian race of which Pirelli is the title sponsor is designed by an artist thanks to the collaboration with Pirelli HangarBicocca. This year, the task was entrusted to Andrea Sala, an artist accredited in the contemporary art system, present in important museum and private collections, who has always explored the relationship between art and the history of design and Italian industrial production. VROOOM represents, through abstract forms, the long history of the Pirelli tire and the idea of ​​speed and acceleration. The trophy, composed of a protruding part in Valchromat and a base in chromed aluminum, is made in four copies – three for the podium drivers and one for the representative of the winning team.

“The idea and conception of the trophy are the result of a series of site visits in the world of Pirelli” – explains Andrea Sala – “from the R&D departments to the production ones to discover what happens inside the world of tyres, from natural rubber to the materials used in their construction, as well as the exploration of the archive of the Pirelli Foundation. The name VROOOM expresses what I wanted to represent, the image of Formula 1 that I have always had since I was a child: the moment of departurethe cars lined up on the grid, the lights go out and there is the sprint towards the first braking point. The trophy transforms this moment – ​​the beginning of everything, the sprint, the speed – into a sculptural object”.

VROOOM will be presented during the Pirelli Tyres Talk, a press event held in the Pirelli Hot Laps garage (box 7-8) Friday August 30tha few minutes before the first free practice session. The event will be attended by Nikolas Tombazis, Director of FIA Single-Seaters, and Mario Isola, Director of Motorsport at Pirelli, together with the artist.

Another new feature that will distinguish the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAN PREMIO D’ITALIA 2024 will be the Podium Cap which, as already happened this year in Miami, Montreal and Silverstone, will be a special edition featuring the Tricolore of the Italian flag.

The third and, from a strictly technical point of view, most important novelty of this edition of the Italian Grand Prix will be the asphalt. The Autodromo has begun a process of renovation and modernization of its facilities to project it towards the future and the first phase included the complete resurfacing of the track as well as the revision of some underpasses (the one in Santa Maria delle Selve and two along the straight between the Ascari variant and the Parabolica) and the creation of a completely new one that connects the Vedano entrance with the Parabolica, thus separating the flow of pedestrians from that of vehicles. Furthermore, the water collection and drainage systems of the runway have been redone.

At the beginning of August, at the end of the works that required the use of 240 workers and 92 vehicles, a team of Pirelli technicians carried out an inspection to collect data on the new asphalt, shared with the FIA ​​and the teams in view of the last European event of the Formula 1 season. The asphalt, as usually happens when the mix has been laid recently, It is smoother than the previous one and darker in colour. This last feature will have an impact on track temperatures which, in sunny weather conditions, could be higher than in the past and even reach significant peaks, above 50 °C. In theory, the asphalt offers greater adhesive grip, which will have an impact on tyre performance and their operating temperatures. It is highly predictable that we will see a weekend with a very high evolution of the trackas the cars of the various categories participating in the event will go around.

Monza is the track where, usually, they race with the lowest possible aerodynamic configuration precisely to favor the top speed by decreasing the resistance to forward movement. Stability in braking and traction exiting the two chicanes are the factors that put the tires to the test the most, even if the lateral loads exerted in the fast curves, such as the Parabolica named after Michele Alboreto and the Grande, should not be underestimated. For this event, the choice of three dry compounds has not changed compared to 2023: C3 as Hard, C4 as Medium and C5 as Soft.

On a track where the time needed to change tyres is among the highest on the calendar, the one-pit-stop strategy is on paper the fastest. It will be important to see in free practice what role the new asphalt will play on the tyres’ behaviour over the long distance, both in terms of performance and degradation. Last year, the race was very linear, with the two hardest compounds taking centre stage. Seventeen out of twenty drivers chose to start with the C4, only three (Hamilton, Bottas and Magnussen) preferred the C3. Fourteen drivers made just one stop, six stopped twice but one of them, Piastri, was forced to do so due to damage to the front wing in a duel with Hamilton while the other five (Gasly, Zhou, Lawson, Hulkenberg and Magnussen) tried this strategy because the tyres’ performance degradation was already too high in the first stint.

The Italian Grand Prix has always been present in the Formula 1 World Championship calendar since its birth, this is therefore its seventy-fifth edition.. It has always been held at the Monza racetrack with the exception of one edition, in 1980, held at Imola. The drivers with the most victories (5) are Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, followed by Nelson Piquet (4). In terms of pole positions, Hamilton is the record holder (7), followed by Juan Manuel Fangio and Ayrton Senna (5 each). Hamilton and Schumacher also share the record for podium finishes (8), with Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso tied for third with six podiums each. Among the teams, Ferrari is the one with the most records: victories (19), pole positions (23) and podium finishes (17). Furthermore, the Scuderia is not the only Italian team to have triumphed in its home race. The other team that races under the license issued by the Automobile Club of Italy, Visa CashApp Racing Bulls, which has always been based in Faenza since it was called Minardi, has in fact won the only two races in its history right at Monza: in 2008 with Sebastian Vettel, when it was called Toro Rosso, and in 2020 with Pierre Gasly, when the name was AlphaTauri.