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Italian Grand Prix

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181-740: The Italian Grand Prix ( Italian : Gran Premio d'Italia ) is the fifth oldest national motor racing Grand Prix (after the French Grand Prix , the United States Grand Prix , the Spanish Grand Prix and the Russian Grand Prix ), having been held since 1921. Since 2013, it has been the Grand Prix held the most times, with 94 editions as of 2024 . It is one of the two Grands Prix (along with

362-433: A Bugatti was declared the winner of the shortened event. Enzo Ferrari , who had been close to Campari and Borzacchini; the former deciding to defect from Ferrari's team to Maserati, became hardened by this tragedy. Today, racing historians conclude that the events of this race marked a watershed, notably for Enzo Ferrari. It was the end to the joyful era of racing and the beginning of a harsher new age. Safety in those days

543-657: A Mercedes car in a time of 1:18.887 at an average speed of 264.362 km/h (164.267 mph). A total of eleven Italian drivers have won the Italian Grand Prix; seven before World War II and four when it was part of the World Championship; most recently Ludovico Scarfiotti won in 1966. Alberto Ascari won the race three times (once before Formula One and twice during the Formula One championship). Elio de Angelis and Riccardo Patrese both won

724-467: A guillotine ". Spectators who had climbed onto ladders and scaffolding to get a better view of the track, and those crowding to use the underpass to get to the pits, found themselves in the way of the lethal debris. Jaguar driver Duncan Hamilton , watching from the pit wall, recalled, "The scene on the other side of the road was indescribable. The dead and dying were everywhere; the cries of pain, anguish, and despair screamed catastrophe. I stood as if in

905-489: A Maserati; although Ascari had already won the championship at the Swiss Grand Prix. 1954 turned out to be an interesting race; as up-and-comer Stirling Moss in a Maserati passed both Fangio's Mercedes and Ascari's Ferrari. The furious pace saw the retirement of Moss and Ascari and Fangio went on to win while Moss pushed his Maserati 250F over the line. After the 1954 running, work began on entirely revamping

1086-435: A Mercedes-Benz in his Jaguar. The official government inquiry into the accident called officials, drivers, and team personnel to be questioned and give evidence. The wreckage was examined and tested and, finally, returned to Mercedes-Benz nearly twelve months after the catastrophe. In the end the enquiry ruled that no specific driver was responsible for the crash, and that it was merely a terrible racing incident. The death of

1267-412: A banner to cover it. Levegh's wife was inconsolable and Fitch stayed with her until she could be comforted. Half an hour after the crash Fitch realised that news was probably being broadcast on the radio, and he needed to telephone his family to reassure them that he was not the driver of the crashed car. When he got to the media centre to use a telephone, he got his first inkling of the sheer enormity of

1448-414: A campaign to advocate for better safety measures ten years later. Stewart's campaign gained momentum after the deaths of Lorenzo Bandini and Jim Clark . Fitch became a major safety advocate and began active development of safer road cars and racing circuits. He invented traffic safety devices currently in use on highways, including the sand-and-air-filled Fitch barrels . Macklin's Austin-Healey 100

1629-409: A concrete surface instead of asphalt, was of very poor quality and was supported by stilts rather than solid bedrock; the argument being that it was too dangerous for Formula One cars. The British teams boycotted the race, so Ferrari had no competition. American Phil Hill took victory, in what was the last victory for a front-engined Formula One car. 1961 saw a return to the combined circuit, but it

1810-464: A crowd of people standing on it. Von Trips was thrown out of his car and was killed, as were 14 spectators. Clark survived but was hounded by Italian police for months after the incident. Hill won the race and the championship by one point. The race was not stopped, allegedly to assist rescue work for the injured. 1962 saw a return to the road circuit only and the banking was never used again for Formula One. It still stands, but in decrepit condition for

1991-480: A decision. Despite expectations for the race to be red-flagged and stopped entirely, race officials, led by race director Charles Faroux , kept the race running. In the days after the disaster, several explanations were offered by Faroux for this course of action. They included: After an emergency meeting and vote of Mercedes-Benz company directors by telephone in Stuttgart , West Germany , Neubauer finally got

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2172-407: A double chicane) in the opposite direction compared to the usual one; then, through the connection introduced a few years before by Florio, they took the central straight, the south curve (also interrupted by a chicane) and the main straight; finally a 180 ° hairpin turned back to the finish line. This configuration was considered too slow and since the following year Florio circuit (with five chicanes)

2353-498: A dream, too horrified to even think." When the rest of Levegh's car landed on the embankment, the rear-mounted fuel tank exploded. The fuel fire raised the temperature of the remaining Elektron bodywork past its ignition temperature, which was lower than that of other metal alloys due to its high magnesium content. The alloy burst into white-hot flames, showering the track and crowd with magnesium embers, made worse by rescue workers unfamiliar with magnesium fires who poured water onto

2534-793: A higher safety standard. In the United States , the American Automobile Association (AAA) dissolved their Contest Board that had been the primary sanctioning body for motorsport in the US (including the Indianapolis 500 ) since 1904. It decided that auto racing detracted from its primary goals, and the United States Automobile Club was formed to take over the race sanctioning and officiating. Most countries lifted their racing bans within

2715-431: A huge accident at the second Lesmo Curve which also took out Italian Michele Alboreto. Watson was uninjured in his carbon-fibre McLaren. 1982 was won by Prost's teammate René Arnoux; and Prost also won the exciting 1985 event, this time driving a McLaren. Prost's championship rivals Alboreto (now driving a Ferrari) and Finn Keke Rosberg in a Williams both retired. 1988 saw a memorable win; as McLaren had won every race up to

2896-565: A huge number of civil servants and soldiers recruited from all over the country introduced many more words and idioms from their home languages— ciao is derived from the Venetian word s-cia[v]o ("slave", that is "your servant"), panettone comes from the Lombard word panetton , etc. Only 2.5% of Italy's population could speak the Italian standardized language properly when

3077-471: A little over one million people in the United States speak Italian at home. Nevertheless, an Italian language media market does exist in the country. In Canada, Italian is the second most spoken non-official language when varieties of Chinese are not grouped together, with 375,645 claiming Italian as their mother tongue in 2016. Italian immigrants to South America have also brought a presence of

3258-657: A local vernacular. These dialects, as they are commonly referred to, evolved from Vulgar Latin over the course of centuries, unaffected by formal standards and teachings. They are not in any sense "dialects" of standard Italian, which itself started off as one of these local tongues, but sister languages of Italian. Mutual intelligibility with Italian varies widely, as it does with Romance languages in general. The Romance languages of Italy can differ greatly from Italian at all levels ( phonology , morphology , syntax , lexicon , pragmatics ) and are classified typologically as distinct languages. The standard Italian language has

3439-577: A long time before being restored in the early 2010s; the last time it was used was in 1969 for the 1000 kilometre sports car race that year. Briton Graham Hill won the race, and won the Drivers' Championship in South Africa soon afterward. 1963 saw an attempted use of the extremely fast full circuit again, and the drivers ran the course during Friday practice but the concrete banking was so rough and bumpy that cars were being mechanically torn apart. It

3620-402: A loose wheel from German Heinz-Harald Frentzen 's Jordan. 33-year-old Paolo Gislimberti was given a heart massage at the scene, but later died from his injuries. On a more positive note, the decade also started off with a romp of Ferrari victories, winning in 2000 and 2002–2004. After winning the 2006 Italian Grand Prix , Michael Schumacher announced his retirement from Formula 1 racing at

3801-486: A mistake at the Parabolica and Stewart was in command; this was all to the chagrin of team boss Tony Rudd . 1966 saw Italian Ludovico Scarfiotti win, and no other Italian has won the race since. 1967 was to be a race of interest and was to produce the first of three close finishes on the fast Monza circuit over the next four years. Surtees, now driving for Honda, battled with Australian Jack Brabham, and Surtees won

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3982-658: A poetic and literary origin in the works of Tuscan writers of the 12th century, and, although the grammar and core lexicon are basically unchanged from those used in Florence in the 13th century, the modern standard of the language was largely shaped by relatively recent events. However, Romance vernacular as language spoken in the Italian Peninsula has a longer history. In fact, the earliest surviving texts that can definitely be called vernacular (as distinct from its predecessor Vulgar Latin) are legal formulae known as

4163-534: A public park in Turin . The 1949 race returned to Monza where it stayed for the next 30 years with the configuration ready before the war but never used yet. Monza's banking had been built over and only the road circuit was used, which had been modified slightly. The new long, fluid final corner was now two around 90-degree corners. 1949 saw Italian new-boy Alberto Ascari , son of the late 1924 Italian Grand Prix winner Antonio Ascari , win in his Ferrari; Enzo Ferrari

4344-405: A ramp and launched Levegh's car into the air, flying over spectators and rolling end over end for 80 metres (260 ft). Levegh was thrown out of his tumbling car and hit the ground, crushing his skull upon impact and killing him instantly. The critical kink in the road put the car on a direct trajectory toward the packed terraces and grandstand. The car landed on the earthen embankment between

4525-417: A renewed interest in linguistics in the 16th century, sparked a debate that raged throughout Italy concerning the criteria that should govern the establishment of a modern Italian literary and spoken language. This discussion, known as questione della lingua (i.e., the problem of the language ), ran through the Italian culture until the end of the 19th century, often linked to the political debate on achieving

4706-575: A result. Starting in late medieval times in much of Europe and the Mediterranean, Latin was replaced as the primary commercial language by languages of Italy, especially Tuscan and Venetian. These varieties were consolidated during the Renaissance with the strength of Italy and the rise of humanism and the arts . Italy came to enjoy increasing artistic prestige within Europe. A mark of

4887-540: A seven-vowel system, consisting of /a, ɛ, e, i, ɔ, o, u/ , as well as 23 consonants. Compared with most other Romance languages, Italian phonology is conservative, preserving many words nearly unchanged from Vulgar Latin . Some examples: 1955 Le Mans disaster The 1955 Le Mans disaster was a major crash that occurred on 11 June 1955 during the 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race at Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans , Sarthe , France . Large pieces of debris flew into

5068-479: A single language is that they have evolved so that they are no longer mutually intelligible ; this diagnostic is effective if mutual intelligibility is minimal or absent (e.g. in Romance, Romanian and Portuguese), but it fails in cases such as Spanish-Portuguese or Spanish-Italian, as educated native speakers of either pairing can understand each other well if they choose to do so; however, the level of intelligibility

5249-513: A united Italian state. Renaissance scholars divided into three main factions: A fourth faction claimed that the best Italian was the one that the papal court adopted, which was a mixture of the Tuscan and Roman dialects. Eventually, Bembo's ideas prevailed, and the foundation of the Accademia della Crusca in Florence (1582–1583), the official legislative body of the Italian language, led to

5430-511: A very experienced driver lineup including Formula 1 (F1) Ferrari driver Mike Hawthorn . After conquering F1, Mercedes-Benz had debuted its new 300 SLR in that year's World Sportscar Championship , including a record-setting win at the Mille Miglia for Stirling Moss . The 300 SLR featured a body made of an ultra-lightweight magnesium alloy called Elektron . The car lacked the more effective state-of-the-art disc brakes featured on

5611-590: A year after the disaster. France in particular, as the host of Le Mans, lifted their complete ban on 14 September 1955. On that date, the Ministry of the Interior released new regulations for racing events and codified the approval process that future racing events would need to follow. In contrast, Switzerland's ban persisted for decades. This forced Swiss racing promoters to organize circuit events in foreign countries including France, Italy, and West Germany. In 2003,

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5792-427: Is 89% with French, 87% with Catalan , 85% with Sardinian , 82% with Spanish, 80% with Portuguese , 78% with Ladin , 77% with Romanian . Estimates may differ according to sources. One study, analyzing the degree of differentiation of Romance languages in comparison to Latin (comparing phonology , inflection , discourse , syntax , vocabulary , and intonation ), estimated that distance between Italian and Latin

5973-691: Is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . Italian is the least divergent language from Latin , together with Sardinian (meaning that Italian and Sardinian are the most conservative Romance languages). Spoken by about 85 million people, including 67 million native speakers (2024), Italian is an official language in Italy , San Marino , Switzerland ( Ticino and

6154-759: Is also spoken by a minority in Monaco and France, especially in the southeastern part of the country. Italian was the official language in Savoy and in Nice until 1860, when they were both annexed by France under the Treaty of Turin , a development that triggered the " Niçard exodus ", or the emigration of a quarter of the Niçard Italians to Italy, and the Niçard Vespers . Giuseppe Garibaldi complained about

6335-499: Is due to take place at the Monza Circuit until at least 2031. The first Italian Grand Prix took place on 4 September 1921 at a 10.7-mile (17.3 km) circuit near Montichiari . However, the race is more closely associated with the course at Monza , a racing facility just outside the northern city of Milan , Italy's second largest city in its largest metropolitan area, its economic capital and Alfa Romeo's home. The circuit

6516-534: Is higher than that between Sardinian and Latin. In particular, its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian . As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive. Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino and is spoken fluently by the majority of the countries' populations. Italian is the third most spoken language in Switzerland (after German and French; see Swiss Italian ), although its use there has moderately declined since

6697-460: Is markedly lower between Italian-Spanish, and considerably higher between the Iberian sister languages of Portuguese-Spanish. Speakers of this latter pair can communicate with one another with remarkable ease, each speaking to the other in his own native language without slang/jargon. Nevertheless, on the basis of accumulated differences in morphology, syntax, phonology, and to some extent lexicon, it

6878-504: Is neither a co-official nor a protected language in these countries. Some speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian (either in its standard form or regional varieties ) and a local language of Italy , most frequently the language spoken at home in their place of origin. Italian is a major language in Europe, being one of the official languages of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and one of

7059-462: Is not difficult to identify that for the Romance varieties of Italy, the first extant written evidence of languages that can no longer be considered Latin comes from the ninth and tenth centuries C.E. These written sources demonstrate certain vernacular characteristics and sometimes explicitly mention the use of the vernacular in Italy. Full literary manifestations of the vernacular began to surface around

7240-481: Is specifically located in its namesake suburban town , which was built in 1922 in time for that year's race, and has been the location for most of the races over the years. Monza was built in the Parco di Monza , a public city park with a largely woodland setting, where the famous Royal Villa of Monza is also located. The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza was completed in 1922 and was just the third permanent autodrome in

7421-648: Is the main working language of the Holy See , serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta . Italian has a significant use in musical terminology and opera with numerous Italian words referring to music that have become international terms taken into various languages worldwide. Almost all native Italian words end with vowels , and

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7602-549: Is used, and the town of Chipilo near Puebla, Mexico; each continues to use a derived form of Venetian dating back to the 19th century. Other examples are Cocoliche , an Italian–Spanish pidgin once spoken in Argentina and especially in Buenos Aires , and Lunfardo . The Rioplatense Spanish dialect of Argentina and Uruguay today has thus been heavily influenced by both standard Italian and Italian regional languages as

7783-509: The Il Globo (Australia) and the La gazzetta del Sud Africa (South Africa). Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world, but rarely as the first foreign language. In the 21st century, technology also allows for the continual spread of the Italian language, as people have new ways to learn how to speak, read, and write languages at their own pace and at any given time. For example,

7964-991: The La Voce del Popolo ( Croatia ), the Corriere d'Italia (Germany), the L'italoeuropeo (United Kingdom), the Passaparola ( Luxembourg ), the America Oggi (United States), the Corriere Canadese and the Corriere Italiano (Canada), the Il punto d'incontro (Mexico), the L'Italia del Popolo ( Argentina ), the Fanfulla (Brazil), the Gente d'Italia ( Uruguay ), the La Voce d'Italia ( Venezuela ),

8145-468: The 1955 RAC Tourist Trophy race at Dundrod Circuit . Fangio never raced at Le Mans again. At the Circuit de la Sarthe, the audience stands at the pits were demolished. Much recrimination was directed at Hawthorn, saying that he had suddenly cut in front of Macklin and slammed on the brakes near the entrance to the pits, forcing Macklin to take desperate evasive action into the path of Levegh. This became

8326-638: The British ) which has run as an event of the Formula One World Championship Grands Prix every season, continuously since the championship was introduced in 1950. Every Formula One Italian Grand Prix in the World Championship era has been held at Monza except in 1980 , when it was held at Imola . The Italian Grand Prix counted toward the World Manufacturers' Championship from 1925 to 1928 and toward

8507-573: The European Championship from 1931 to 1932 and from 1935 to 1938. It was additionally designated the European Grand Prix seven times between 1923 and 1967, when this title was an honorary designation given each year to one Grand Prix race in Europe. Four editions before the World Championship were held in places other than Monza: Montichiari ( 1921 ), Livorno ( 1937 ), Milan ( 1947 ) and Turin ( 1948 ). The event

8688-682: The Federal Assembly of Switzerland started a lengthy discussion about whether this ban should be lifted. The discussion focused on traffic policy and environmental questions rather than on safety. On 10 June 2009, the Ständerat ( upper house of the Swiss parliament) defeated a proposal to lift the ban for the second time. In 2015, the ban was relaxed for electric vehicles only, such as cars involved in Formula E electric racing. The ban

8869-702: The Gallo-Italic linguistic panorama of Northern Italy , the Italo-Dalmatian , Neapolitan and its related dialects were largely unaffected by the Franco- Occitan influences introduced to Italy mainly by bards from France during the Middle Ages, but after the Norman conquest of southern Italy , Sicily became the first Italian land to adopt Occitan lyric moods (and words) in poetry. Even in

9050-852: The Grisons ), Corsica , and Vatican City . It has official minority status in Croatia , Slovenian Istria , and the municipalities of Santa Tereza and Encantado in Brazil . Italian is also spoken by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia . Italian is included under the languages covered by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Romania , although Italian

9231-674: The Kingdom of Italy in the Dodecanese ). Italian is widely spoken in Malta , where nearly two-thirds of the population can speak it fluently (see Maltese Italian ). Italian served as Malta's official language until 1934, when it was abolished by the British colonial administration amid strong local opposition. Italian language in Slovenia is an officially recognized minority language in

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9412-773: The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia ), although the masses kept speaking primarily their local vernaculars. Italian was also one of the many recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire . Italy has always had a distinctive dialect for each city because the cities, until recently, were thought of as city-states . Those dialects now have considerable variety . As Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian . The most characteristic differences, for instance, between Roman Italian and Milanese Italian are syntactic gemination of initial consonants in some contexts and

9593-554: The Placiti Cassinesi from the province of Benevento that date from 960 to 963, although the Veronese Riddle , probably from the 8th or early 9th century, contains a late form of Vulgar Latin that can be seen as a very early sample of a vernacular dialect of Italy. The Commodilla catacomb inscription is also a similar case. The Italian language has progressed through a long and slow process, which started after

9774-528: The Western Roman Empire's fall in the 5th century. The language that came to be thought of as Italian developed in central Tuscany and was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri , written in his native Florentine . Dante's epic poems, known collectively as the Commedia , to which another Tuscan poet Giovanni Boccaccio later affixed

9955-549: The chassis . Neubauer got the French authorities to test residual fuel left in the wreck's fuel injection and the result vindicated the company. Opinions differed widely amongst the other drivers as to who was directly to blame for the crash, and such differences remain even today. Macklin claimed that Hawthorn's move to the pits was sudden, causing an emergency that led him to swerve into Levegh's path. Years later Fitch claimed, based on his own recollection and from what he heard from others, that Hawthorn had caused it. Dewis ventured

10136-406: The 111 Italian lecturer sections belonging to foreign schools where Italian is taught as a language of culture. As of 2022, Australia had the highest number of students learning Italian in the world. This occurred because of support by the Italian community in Australia and the Italian Government and also because of successful educational reform efforts led by local governments in Australia. From

10317-458: The 13th century in the form of various religious texts and poetry. Although these are the first written records of Italian varieties separate from Latin, the spoken language had probably diverged long before the first written records appeared since those who were literate generally wrote in Latin even if they spoke other Romance varieties in person. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the use of Standard Italian became increasingly widespread and

10498-438: The 1970s. It is official both on the national level and on regional level in two cantons : Ticino and Grisons . In the latter canton, however, it is only spoken by a small minority, in the Italian Grisons . Ticino, which includes Lugano , the largest Italian-speaking city outside Italy, is the only canton where Italian is predominant. Italian is also used in administration and official documents in Vatican City . Italian

10679-419: The Finn, false to temperament, went behind a few bushes in the circuit and broke down crying. 2000 saw further changes to the circuit, which have stayed since; the Variante Rettifilo was made into a two corner sequence instead of a three corner sequence. The race that year started off tragically, as an accident during the start at the Variante della Roggia resulted in a marshal being struck in the head and chest by

10860-423: The Formula One championship in the current season. A pink background indicates an event which was not part of any championship. A yellow background indicates an event which was part of the pre-war European Grand Prix Championship. A green background indicates an event which was part of the pre-war World Manufacturers' Championship. Manufacturers in bold are competing in the Formula One championship in

11041-422: The Indianapolis Speedway oval in the United States. 1956 saw an exciting race, with championship contenders Fangio, Briton Peter Collins (both in Ferraris) and Frenchman Jean Behra in a Maserati fight over the win. Stirling Moss was already out of championship contention; and Fangio retired with a broken steering arm. The Ferrari team called for Italian Luigi Musso to hand his car over to Fangio. Musso ignored

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11222-438: The Italian GP was won by Brazilian Nelson Piquet after the two turbo Renaults of Jean-Pierre Jabouille and René Arnoux retired. The Italian Grand Prix returned to Monza for 1981, and it has stayed there ever since. The Imola circuit was not to leave Formula One, it hosted the San Marino Grand Prix from 1981 to 2006. The 1981 Italian Grand Prix was won by rising star Alain Prost , and that race saw Briton John Watson have

11403-449: The Italian Grand Prix did not return until 1947. 1947 saw the Italian Grand Prix being held at a fairgrounds park in the city of Milan's district of Portello , and this race was won by Italian Carlo Felice Trossi driving an Alfa Romeo. Italian Giovanni Bracco went off the road in his Delage and crashed into a group of spectators, killing five. This venue was never used again for racing, and 1948 saw it being held in Valentino Park ,

11584-434: The Italian Grand Prix; Prost had gone out with engine problems and his teammate Ayrton Senna had crashed into a backmarker with two laps to go- and Austrian Gerhard Berger in a Ferrari took victory, followed by Alboreto to make it a Ferrari 1–2. This was particularly memorable because Enzo Ferrari had died a month before this event. 1989 saw Prost win after the Honda engine in Senna's McLaren expired; but Senna took victory

11765-417: The Italian dialects has declined in the modern era , as Italy unified under Standard Italian and continues to do so aided by mass media from newspapers to radio to television, diglossia is still frequently encountered in Italy and triglossia is not uncommon in emigrant communities among older speakers. Both situations normally involve some degree of code-switching and code-mixing . Notes: Italian has

11946-439: The Italian language into a lingua franca used not only among clerks, nobility, and functionaries in the Italian courts but also by the bourgeoisie . Italian literature's first modern novel, I promessi sposi ( The Betrothed ) by Alessandro Manzoni , further defined the standard by "rinsing" his Milanese "in the waters of the Arno " ( Florence 's river), as he states in the preface to his 1840 edition. After unification,

12127-411: The Jaguar team would respond in kind, out of respect for the crash victims. Jaguar team manager "Lofty" England declined. Hawthorn and the Jaguar team kept racing. With the Mercedes team withdrawn and the Ferraris all out of commission, Jaguar's main competition had gone. Hawthorn and Bueb won the race by a margin of five laps from Aston Martin . The weather had closed in on Sunday morning and there

12308-438: The Jaguar's advanced disc brakes, braked hard enough to slow his Jaguar from such a speed in time. There were two key factors regarding the track layout at that time – first, there was no designated deceleration lane for cars coming into the pits, and second, that just before the main straight, there was a very slight right-hand kink in the road just after which Hawthorn started braking. Macklin, who also braked hard, ran off

12489-404: The Maison Blanche portion of the course, he rapidly caught Lance Macklin in his Austin Healey 100S , who had seen him and moved over to the right to let him pass. Putting another lap on Macklin coming up to the main straight, Hawthorn then raised his hand to indicate he was pitting and pulled across to the right (from Hawthorn's testimony). What caught Macklin out though was that Hawthorn, using

12670-417: The Maserati then overturned and violently flipped multiple times, and by the time the wrecked car came to a stop, Borzacchini was pinned underneath and was being crushed by his car, not having been thrown out. And while Borzacchini's Maserati had been crashing all over the track, Campari swerved to avoid him, and by doing this, his car went up and flew off the banking and crashed into trees situated right next to

12851-497: The Mediterranean. The increasing political and cultural relevance of Florence during the periods of the rise of the Medici Bank , humanism , and the Renaissance made its dialect, or rather a refined version of it, a standard in the arts. The Renaissance era, known as il Rinascimento in Italian, was seen as a time of rebirth, which is the literal meaning of both renaissance (from French) and rinascimento (Italian). During this time, long-existing beliefs stemming from

13032-479: The Nürburgring; finished fourth while Peterson won. 1977 saw Italian-American Mario Andretti win in a Lotus; but the next year's race was to add another page of tragedy to Monza's history. Peterson had re-joined Lotus at the beginning of the 1978 season and had challenged his teammate Andretti all the way. Peterson had crashed his car in practice, and had to use Andretti's spare car, not a comfortable fit for

13213-531: The Race , was embittered when he found that Hawthorn now disclaimed all responsibility for the crash without identifying who had caused it. With Levegh dead, Macklin presumed that Hawthorn's implication was that he (Macklin) had been responsible, and he began a libel action. The action was still unresolved when Hawthorn was killed in a non-racing crash on the Guildford bypass in 1959, coincidentally while overtaking

13394-556: The San Marino Grand Prix in 1985 and 1990 respectively, so they won on home soil but not at Monza. Both Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have won the Italian Grand Prix five times and Nelson Piquet has won it four times. Ferrari have won their home Grand Prix 20 times, the most recent being Charles Leclerc in 2024 . The 2023 Italian Grand Prix set the record for the duration of the shortest race, not counting prematurly ended races, running for 1:13:41.143, breaking

13575-403: The accident Mercedes-Benz withdrew from motorsports until 1985, although the withdrawal had already been decided before the race and had not been caused by the accident. After returning to sports car racing in the mid 1980s, initially as an engine supplier, Mercedes went on to win the 1989 Le Mans race in partnership with Sauber Motorsport . Mercedes went on to compete in the championship during

13756-422: The alternative non-championship Monza Grand Prix was run in 1929 and 1930) until the 1931 race , held in late May instead of the traditional early September, was won by Giuseppe Campari and Tazio Nuvolari , sharing an Alfa Romeo. The 1931 race was something of an endurance race; it took ten hours to complete. The great Nuvolari won again in a shortened 1932 race , this time held in early June. In 1933 , with

13937-474: The bank. Hawthorn had overshot his pits and stopped. Getting out, he was immediately ordered by his team to get back in and do another lap to get away from the total confusion and danger. When he pit stopped during the next lap, he staggered out of the car completely distraught, adamant that he had caused the catastrophe. Ivor Bueb and Norman Dewis , both Le Mans debutants, had to step into their respective cars for their first driver stints. Bueb in particular

14118-452: The burning Lotus. Peterson suffered severe leg injuries, and he died from embolism complications a day later. With Peterson's retirement from the race, Andretti won the Drivers' Championship. The race itself was an interesting one; during the parade lap South African Jody Scheckter lost a wheel from his Wolf at the second Lesmo curve and hit an Armco barrier right next to the track. Andretti, Hunt, Lauda, Fittipaldi and Reutemann went to inspect

14299-476: The call approving his team's withdrawal just before midnight. Waiting until 1:45 am, when many spectators had left, he stepped onto the track and quietly called his cars into the pits, at the time running first and third. Their retirement was briefly announced over the public address system. The Mercedes trucks were packed up and gone by morning. Chief engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut had gone to the Jaguar pits to ask if

14480-461: The cars, but still racing in the top ten. Going into the second hour, Castellotti started dropping back, but Hawthorn and Fangio continued the duel, swapping the lead and dropping the lap record further and further, lapping most of the field. The accident happened at 6:26 pm, at the end of lap 35, when the first pit stops for the leading cars were starting. On lap 35, Hawthorn and Fangio were racing as hard as ever. In his biography, Hawthorn said he

14661-444: The case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are careful not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages. The economic might and relatively advanced development of Tuscany at the time ( Late Middle Ages ) gave its language weight, although Venetian remained widespread in medieval Italian commercial life, and Ligurian (or Genoese) remained in use in maritime trade alongside

14842-525: The catastrophe. Mercedes-Benz won both of these events, and was able to secure the constructors championship for the season. Having achieved that, Mercedes withdrew from motorsport. The horror of the crash caused some drivers present, including Americans Fitch (after completing the season with Mercedes), Phil Walters (who had been offered a drive with Ferrari for the rest of the season ), and Sherwood Johnston , to retire from racing. Macklin also decided to retire after being involved in another fatal crash, during

15023-450: The circuit. New facilities were built and a new corner, the Parabolica, was built right before the pits. Extra track used for a short course was eliminated. The biggest change was the construction of the new Monza banking. Built on top of where the almost flat, narrow original banking was, these huge concrete bankings, called the sopraelevata curves, were built in the same shape as the original banking had been. The only significant difference

15204-653: The colonial period. In the early 19th century, Eritrea was the country with the highest number of Italians abroad, and the Italian Eritreans grew from 4,000 during World War I to nearly 100,000 at the beginning of World War II. In Asmara there are two Italian schools, the Italian School of Asmara (Italian primary school with a Montessori department) and the Liceo Sperimentale "G. Marconi" (Italian international senior high school). Italian

15385-573: The country (some 0.42% of the total population). Their numbers dropped dramatically after World War II following the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus , which caused the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians. Italian was the official language of the Republic of Ragusa from 1492 to 1807. It formerly had official status in Albania due to the annexation of

15566-518: The country to the Kingdom of Italy (1939–1943). Albania has a large population of non-native speakers, with over half of the population having some knowledge of the Italian language. The Albanian government has pushed to make Italian a compulsory second language in schools. The Italian language is well-known and studied in Albania, due to its historical ties and geographical proximity to Italy and to

15747-446: The country. A few hundred Italian settlers returned to Libya in the 2000s. Italian was the official language of Eritrea during Italian colonisation . Italian is today used in commerce, and it is still spoken especially among elders; besides that, Italian words are incorporated as loan words in the main language spoken in the country (Tigrinya). The capital city of Eritrea, Asmara , still has several Italian schools, established during

15928-525: The country. The official census, carried out in 2002, reported 2,258 ethnic Italians ( Istrian Italians ) in Slovenia (0.11% of the total population). Italian language in Croatia is an official minority language in the country, with many schools and public announcements published in both languages. The 2001 census in Croatia reported 19,636 ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians ) in

16109-486: The crowd, killing 83 spectators and French driver Pierre Levegh , and injuring around 120 more. It was the most catastrophic crash in motorsport history, prompting multiple countries in Europe to ban motorsports nationwide; Switzerland only lifted its ban in 2022. The crash started when Jaguar driver Mike Hawthorn pulled to the right side of the track in front of Austin-Healey driver Lance Macklin and started braking for his pit stop . Macklin swerved out from behind

16290-459: The current F1 team), and American John Fitch with one of the elder statesmen of French motor racing, Pierre Levegh . It had been Levegh's unprecedented solo drive in the 1952 race that failed in the last hour, which allowed Mercedes-Benz their first Le Mans victory. Aside from two layout changes to make the circuit shorter, the Circuit de la Sarthe was largely unaltered since the inception of

16471-490: The current season. A pink background indicates an event which was not part of any championship. A yellow background indicates an event which was part of the pre-war European Grand Prix Championship. A green background indicates an event which was part of the pre-war World Manufacturers' Championship. * Between 1997 and 2005 built by Ilmor , funded by Mercedes ** Built by Cosworth , funded by Ford *** Built by Porsche A pink background indicates an event which

16652-420: The damage, and they refused to start until it had been repaired; and it was repaired in time; although the race started well after it was supposed to. The cars were shown the green light while the back half of the field was still in motion (this often happened at Monza and it had happened during the first start); and due to the visible excitement of the start official Andretti and Canadian Gilles Villeneuve jumped

16833-464: The design and fashion industries, in some sports such as football and especially in culinary terms. In Italy, almost all the other languages spoken as the vernacular —other than standard Italian and some languages spoken among immigrant communities—are often called " Italian dialects ", a label that can be very misleading if it is understood to mean "dialects of Italian". The Romance dialects of Italy are local evolutions of spoken Latin that pre-date

17014-588: The diffusion of Italian television in the country. Due to heavy Italian influence during the Italian colonial period , Italian is still understood by some in former colonies such as Libya. Although it was the primary language in Libya since colonial rule , Italian greatly declined under the rule of Muammar Gaddafi , who expelled the Italian Libyan population and made Arabic the sole official language of

17195-463: The disaster, overhearing a reporter filing that 48 deaths were already confirmed. When Fitch returned to his pit, he urged the Mercedes team to withdraw from the race, as continuing to compete would be a public relations disaster for Mercedes-Benz regardless of whether they won or lost. Team manager Alfred Neubauer had already reached the same conclusion, but did not have the authority to make such

17376-713: The drivers' title. Regazzoni took victory, followed by Fittipaldi and Lauda, who won his first drivers' title and Ferrari also won the Constructors' Championship at the same event. 1976 saw further changes to Monza's layout. Two chicanes, called Variante Rettifilo were installed just before the Curva Grande, and another chicane, the Variante della Roggia, was installed just before the Lesmo bends. Lauda, who had come back to racing only six weeks after his horrendous crash at

17557-478: The educated gentlemen was to make the Grand Tour , visiting Italy to see its great historical monuments and works of art. It was expected that the visitor would learn at least some Italian, understood as language based on Florentine. In England, while the classical languages Latin and Greek were the first to be learned, Italian became the second most common modern language after French, a position it held until

17738-405: The end of the 2006 season. Kimi Räikkönen replaced him at Ferrari from the start of the 2007 season. At the 2008 Italian Grand Prix , Sebastian Vettel became the youngest driver in history to win a Formula One Grand Prix. Aged 21 years and 74 days, Vettel broke the record set by Fernando Alonso at the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix by 317 days as he won in wet conditions at Monza. Vettel led for

17919-462: The establishment of Italian, and as such are sister languages to the Tuscan that was the historical source of Italian. They can be quite different from Italian and from each other, with some belonging to different linguistic branches of Romance. The only exceptions to this are twelve groups considered " historical language minorities ", which are officially recognized as distinct minority languages by

18100-433: The fact that it was linguistically an intermediate between the northern and the southern Italian dialects. Thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the official language of Italy. Italian was progressively made an official language of most of the Italian states predating unification, slowly replacing Latin, even when ruled by foreign powers (such as Spain in the Kingdom of Naples , or Austria in

18281-549: The fastest Formula One race ever at that point in time. It was really just a bunch of straights and fast corners and F1 cars had become increasingly advanced and much faster, and the drivers were constantly slipstreaming each other around the circuit. A small chicane was put at the end of the pit straight and another one at the Vialone curve; Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi won that race and his first Drivers' Championship at only 25 years of age. His chief rival Jackie Stewart went out at

18462-569: The fire, with a further 120 to 178 injured. Other observers estimated the toll to be much higher. It has remained the most catastrophic crash in motorsport history. A special Mass was held in the morning in the Le Mans Cathedral for the first funerals of the victims. The death toll led to an immediate temporary ban on motorsports in France , Spain , Switzerland , West Germany , and other nations, until racetracks could be brought to

18643-519: The following year. 1991 saw a battle between Senna and the two Williams drivers of Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese . Mansell won, Senna finished 2nd and Patrese went out with gearbox problems. Senna won again in 1992, and 1993 saw Williams drivers Alain Prost and Damon Hill battle hard, and while leading, Prost's engine failed and Hill went on to take victory. In response to the Imola tragedies in 1994,

18824-476: The free website and application Duolingo has 4.94 million English speakers learning the Italian language. According to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , every year there are more than 200,000 foreign students who study the Italian language; they are distributed among the 90 Institutes of Italian Culture that are located around the world, in the 179 Italian schools located abroad, or in

19005-413: The inferno, greatly intensifying the flames. As a result, the car burned for several hours. Meanwhile, Macklin's car, heavily damaged, rammed the left-side barrier, then veered to the right of the track into the pit lane, narrowly missing Kling's Mercedes-Benz, Roberto Mieres 's Maserati , and Don Beauman 's Jaguar, all of which were already in the pits refuelling before the accident. Macklin's car hit

19186-489: The island of Corsica (but not in the neighbouring Sardinia , which on the contrary underwent Italianization well into the late 18th century, under Savoyard sway: the island's linguistic composition, roofed by the prestige of Spanish among the Sardinians , would therein make for a rather slow process of assimilation to the Italian cultural sphere ). The rediscovery of Dante's De vulgari eloquentia , as well as

19367-577: The language has a 7-vowel sound system ('e' and 'o' have mid-low and mid-high sounds). Italian has contrast between short and long consonants and gemination (doubling) of consonants. During the Middle Ages , the established written language in Europe was Latin, although the great majority of people were illiterate, and only few were well versed in the language. In the Italian Peninsula , as in most of Europe, most would instead speak

19548-640: The language to that continent. According to some sources, Italian is the second most spoken language in Argentina after the official language of Spanish, although its number of speakers, mainly of the older generation, is decreasing. Italian bilingual speakers can be found scattered across the Southeast of Brazil as well as in the South. In Venezuela , Italian is the most spoken language after Spanish and Portuguese, with around 200,000 speakers. In Uruguay , people who speak Italian as their home language are 1.1% of

19729-498: The late 18th century when it tended to be replaced by German. John Milton , for instance, wrote some of his early poetry in Italian. Within the Catholic Church , Italian is known by a large part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and is used in substitution for Latin in some official documents. Italian loanwords continue to be used in most languages in matters of art and music (especially classical music including opera), in

19910-534: The late 19th to the mid-20th century, millions of Italians settled in Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Brazil and Venezuela, as well as in Canada and the United States, where they formed a physical and cultural presence. In some cases, colonies were established where variants of regional languages of Italy were used, and some continue to use this regional language. Examples are Rio Grande do Sul , Brazil, where Talian

20091-567: The law. On the other hand, Corsican (a language spoken on the French island of Corsica ) is closely related to medieval Tuscan , from which Standard Italian derives and evolved. The differences in the evolution of Latin in the different regions of Italy can be attributed to the natural changes that all languages in regular use are subject to, and to some extent to the presence of three other types of languages: substrata, superstrata, and adstrata . The most prevalent were substrata (the language of

20272-497: The layout of the 30-year-old track, which had not been designed for cars as fast as those involved in the crash. There was great anticipation for the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans , as Ferrari , Jaguar , and Mercedes-Benz had all won the race previously and all three automakers had arrived with new and improved cars. The Ferraris, current champions at the time, were very fast but fragile and prone to mechanical failure. Jaguar concentrated their racing almost exclusively on Le Mans and had

20453-401: The lead all race. On the last lap, Peterson got the inside line for the Parabolica, but Gethin got in front going alongside Peterson through the long right-hand corner, and beat Peterson to the checkered flag by the slimmest of margins; one-one hundredth of a second. Cevert and Hailwood finished within two-tenths and Ganley was half a second behind. 1972 saw changes to Monza. The 1971 race was

20634-546: The left and spun multiple times. Rindt died not because of the impact but because he had not properly secured his seat belts and the buckle had slit his throat. Rindt became the only posthumous World Champion, after Ferrari driver Jacky Ickx failed to overhaul Rindt. Ickx's teammate Clay Regazzoni won the race, which saw 28 lead changes. 1971 was to see the third close finish in four years. Briton Peter Gethin , Swede Ronnie Peterson , Frenchman François Cevert , Briton Mike Hailwood and New Zealander Howden Ganley battled for

20815-418: The line. Stewart came out on top and beat Rindt by eight-hundredths of a second. The four drivers were all within two-tenths of a second of each other. With this win, Stewart won his first of three championships. 1970 saw Rindt's fatal crash during qualifying at the wheel of his rear wing-less Lotus; his car suffered brake shaft failure, veered off the track, hit and went under the improperly-secured guardrail on

20996-412: The majority of the Grand Prix and crossed the finish line 12.5 seconds ahead of McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen . Earlier in the weekend, he had already become the youngest pole sitter, after setting the fastest times in both Q2 and Q3 qualifying stages. His win also gave him the record of youngest podium-finisher. Vettel also won in 2011, after a spectacular pass at the Curva Grande, passing Fernando Alonso on

21177-412: The nation was unified in 1861. Italian is a Romance language , a descendant of Vulgar Latin (colloquial spoken Latin). Standard Italian is based on Tuscan , especially its Florentine dialect , and is, therefore, an Italo-Dalmatian language , a classification that includes most other central and southern Italian languages and the extinct Dalmatian . According to Ethnologue , lexical similarity

21358-408: The number of printing presses in Italy grew rapidly and by the year 1500 reached a total of 56, the biggest number of printing presses in all of Europe. This enabled the production of more pieces of literature at a lower cost and Italian, as the dominant language, spread. Italian became the language used in the courts of every state in the Italian Peninsula , as well as the prestige variety used on

21539-630: The openness of vowels, the length of the consonants, and influence of the local language (for example, in informal situations andà , annà and nare replace the standard Italian andare in the area of Tuscany, Rome and Venice respectively for the infinitive "to go"). There is no definitive date when the various Italian variants of Latin—including varieties that contributed to modern Standard Italian—began to be distinct enough from Latin to be considered separate languages. One criterion for determining that two language variants are to be considered separate languages rather than variants of

21720-485: The opinions that Macklin's move around Hawthorn was careless and that Levegh was not competent to meet the demands of driving at the speeds the 300SLR was capable of. Both Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz issued official statements, mainly in self-defence against the accusations levelled against them and their drivers. Neubauer limited himself to suggesting improvements to the pit straight and making pit-stops safer. Macklin, on reading Hawthorn's 1958 autobiography, Challenge Me

21901-481: The order so Collins came in and handed his car and his championship chances to Fangio. Behra had retired early with a magneto problem in his own car and took over his teammate Umberto Maglioli 's car; but he retired that car, too. Musso ended up leading after Moss ran out of fuel coming through Vialone. Moss was able to refuel his car and storm off after Musso and eventually the Italian retired with steering problems, and Moss, with Fangio catching him up fast, stormed round

22082-584: The original inhabitants), as the Italian dialects were most probably simply Latin as spoken by native cultural groups. Superstrata and adstrata were both less important. Foreign conquerors of Italy that dominated different regions at different times left behind little to no influence on the dialects. Foreign cultures with which Italy engaged in peaceful relations with, such as trade, had no significant influence either. Throughout Italy, regional varieties of Standard Italian, called Regional Italian , are spoken. Regional differences can be recognized by various factors:

22263-458: The other hand, almost everyone still speaks the Corsican idiom , which, due to its linguistic proximity to the Italian standard language, appears both linguistically as an Italian dialect and therefore as a carrier of Italian culture, despite the French government's decades-long efforts to cut Corsica off from the Italian motherland. Italian was the official language in Monaco until 1860, when it

22444-466: The outside of the big, long curve. Uncertainty grew over the fact that Monza would continue to host the race as Rome had signed a deal to host Formula One from 2012. On 18 March 2010 however, Bernie Ecclestone and the Monza track managers signed a deal which assured the race being held there until at least 2016. The 2020 Italian Grand Prix saw the fastest ever qualifying lap, set by Lewis Hamilton in

22625-406: The population of Italy could speak Standard Italian. He reports that in 1951 that percentage had risen to 87%. The ability to speak Italian did not necessarily mean it was in everyday use, and most people (63.5%) still usually spoke their native dialects. In addition, other factors such as mass emigration, industrialization, and urbanization, and internal migrations after World War II , contributed to

22806-499: The previous record belonging to the 2003 Italian Grand Prix , which ran for 1:14:19.838. Drivers in bold are competing in the Formula One championship in the current season. A pink background indicates an event which was not part of the Formula One World Championship. A yellow background indicates an event which was part of the pre- war European Championship. Teams in bold are competing in

22987-469: The proliferation of Standard Italian. The Italians who emigrated during the Italian diaspora beginning in 1861 were often of the uneducated lower class, and thus the emigration had the effect of increasing the percentage of literates, who often knew and understood the importance of Standard Italian, back home in Italy. A large percentage of those who had emigrated also eventually returned to Italy, often more educated than when they had left. Although use of

23168-528: The pronunciation of stressed "e", and of "s" between vowels in many words: e.g. va bene "all right" is pronounced [vabˈbɛːne] by a Roman (and by any standard Italian speaker), [vaˈbeːne] by a Milanese (and by any speaker whose native dialect lies to the north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line ); a casa "at home" is [akˈkaːsa] for Roman, [akˈkaːsa] or [akˈkaːza] for standard, [aˈkaːza] for Milanese and generally northern. In contrast to

23349-415: The publication of Agnolo Monosini 's Latin tome Floris italicae linguae libri novem in 1604 followed by the first Italian dictionary in 1612. An important event that helped the diffusion of Italian was the conquest and occupation of Italy by Napoleon in the early 19th century (who was himself of Italian-Corsican descent). This conquest propelled the unification of Italy some decades after and pushed

23530-549: The race being held this time at the traditional timeframe of early September, disaster struck again. Three top drivers were killed during the course of the Monza Grand Prix , a Formula Libre race held over three heats and a final in the afternoon of 10 September, after the Italian Grand Prix itself had been held in the morning, on what became known as the "Black Day of Monza". During the second heat, there

23711-430: The race by two-tenths of a second; and Clark, who had problems at the beginning of the race and lost a whole lap, stormed around the circuit, equalled his pole position time and unlapped himself to take the lead- but his fuel pump broke and he coasted over the line to finish third. 1969 saw four drivers; Stewart, Austrian Jochen Rindt , Frenchman Jean-Pierre Beltoise and New Zealander Bruce McLaren battle right down to

23892-509: The race in 1923 , when top speeds of cars were typically in the region of 100 km/h (60 mph). By 1955, top speeds for the leading cars were over 270 km/h (170 mph). That said, the circuit had been resurfaced and widened after the Second World War . The pits and grandstands had been reconstructed, but there were no barriers between the pit lane and the racing line, and only a 4 ft (1.2 m) earthen bank between

24073-465: The rear wheels of the Bugatti. Materassi lost control of the car, swerved left, cleared a 15-foot wide and 10-foot deep ditch and ploughed into the unprotected grandstand opposite the pits, killing himself and 27 spectators, and injuring another 26. It was the worst accident in motor racing history and remained so until the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans . The Italian Grand Prix went on a three-year hiatus (but

24254-487: The referendum that allowed France to annex Savoy and Nice, and a group of his followers (among the Italian Savoyards ) took refuge in Italy in the following years. Corsica passed from the Republic of Genoa to France in 1769 after the Treaty of Versailles . Italian was the official language of Corsica until 1859. Giuseppe Garibaldi called for the inclusion of the " Corsican Italians " within Italy when Rome

24435-525: The right-hand edge of the track, throwing up dust. Noticing that Hawthorn was slowing down, Macklin swerved left to avoid Hawthorn, whether it was an instinctive reaction, a loss of control from going onto the change of road-surface, or his car's disc brakes operating unevenly. As a result, Macklin's car veered across to the centre of the track, briefly out of control. This put him into the way of Levegh's Mercedes, closing in at over 200 km/h (120 mph), intent on doing another lap and in front of Fangio, who

24616-416: The rival Jaguar D-Type , instead incorporating inboard drum brakes and a large air brake behind the driver that could be raised to increase drag and slow the car. Mercedes team manager Alfred Neubauer assembled a multinational team for the race: pairing his two best drivers Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss in the lead car, 1952 race winner Karl Kling with Frenchman André Simon (both also in

24797-410: The second Lesmo curve was slowed down but the race risked being canceled due to the bureaucratic and environmental difficulties of modifying the track. Other changes were made in 1995 at Curva Grande , Variante della Roggia and both Lesmo Corners, which were anticipated for to create wider runoff areas. 1996 saw Michael Schumacher win for Ferrari, and 1999 saw championship leader Mika Hakkinen crash and

24978-409: The semi-official pronouncement of the Mercedes team and Macklin's story. The Jaguar team in turn questioned the fitness and competence of Macklin and Levegh as drivers. The initial media accounts were wildly inaccurate, as shown by subsequent analysis of photographic evidence conducted by Road & Track editor (and 1955 second-place finisher) Paul Frère in 1975. Additional details emerged when

25159-435: The slowing Jaguar into the path of Levegh, who was passing on the left in his much faster Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR . Levegh rear-ended Macklin at high speed, overriding Macklin's car and launching his own car through the air. Levegh's car skipped over a protective earthen berm at 200 km/h (125 mph) and made at least two impacts within the spectator area, the last of which caused the car to disintegrate, throwing him onto

25340-406: The spectators and the track, bounced, then slammed into a concrete stairwell structure and disintegrated. The momentum of the heaviest components of the car – the engine block , radiator , and front suspension – hurtled straight on into the crowd for almost 100 metres (330 ft), crushing all in their path. The bonnet lid scythed through the air, " decapitating tightly jammed spectators like

25521-473: The spectators was blamed on inadequate safety standards for the track design. Tony Rolt and other drivers had been raising concerns about the pit straight since 1953. Over the next year, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) set about making extensive track improvements and infrastructure changes at the Circuit de la Sarthe—the pit straight was redesigned and widened to remove the kink just before

25702-481: The start and were penalised a minute; Lauda went on to take victory in his Alfa-powered Brabham in a shortened race distance; it was getting dark by the time the checkered flag was shown to the Austrian driver. 1979 saw changes to Monza, run off areas were added to the Curva Grande and Lesmo corners and the track was upgraded. Scheckter, now driving for Ferrari, won the race and the Drivers' Championship. In 1979, it

25883-429: The start with a broken gearbox. In 1973 , Stewart punctured a tire early in the race and went into the pits to have it changed; he came out in 20th place and finished fourth in the race while Fittipaldi finished second; this was enough for Stewart to win his third and final Drivers' Championship. 1974 saw further changes with the Vialone chicane changed and renamed Variante Ascari, which was the place where Alberto Ascari

26064-436: The start-finish line, and to give room for a deceleration lane. The pits complex was pulled down and rebuilt, giving more room to the teams, but thereby limiting spaces to only 52 starters rather than the previous 60. The grandstand was demolished and rebuilt with new spectator terraces and a wide ditch between them and the racetrack. Track safety technology and practices evolved slowly until F1 driver Jackie Stewart organized

26245-412: The stills reviewed by Frère were converted to video form. The media also speculated on the violent fire that engulfed the wreck, which intensified when fire marshals poured their water-based extinguishers on the flames. They suggested that Mercedes-Benz had tampered with the official fuel-supply with an explosive additive, but the intensity of the fire was due instead to the magnesium-alloy construction of

26426-478: The tall Swede, in contrast to the diminutive American. As the race started, there was a huge, fiery multi-car pile-up on the approach to the first corner. One of the victims was Peterson; his car slammed head-on into the Armco barriers and had caught fire. Instead of the ill-equipped marshals, Briton James Hunt , with the help of Frenchman Patrick Depailler and Regazzoni ran towards Peterson's aid and pulled him out of

26607-473: The teachings of the Roman Catholic Church began to be understood from new perspectives as humanists —individuals who placed emphasis on the human body and its full potential—began to shift focus from the church to human beings themselves. The continual advancements in technology play a crucial role in the diffusion of languages. After the invention of the printing press in the 15th century,

26788-469: The title Divina , were read throughout the peninsula and his written dialect became the "canonical standard" that all educated Italians could understand. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language. In addition to the widespread exposure gained through literature, the Florentine dialect also gained prestige due to the political and cultural significance of Florence at the time and

26969-542: The total population of the country. In Australia, Italian is the second most spoken foreign language after Chinese, with 1.4% of the population speaking it as their home language. The main Italian-language newspapers published outside Italy are the L'Osservatore Romano ( Vatican City ), the L'Informazione di San Marino ( San Marino ), the Corriere del Ticino and the laRegione Ticino ( Switzerland ),

27150-463: The track and the spectators. The cars had no seat belts ; the drivers reasoned that it was preferable to be thrown clear in a collision rather than be crushed or trapped in a burning car. The 1955 race began at 4pm on Saturday, and, as predicted, the lead cars of Eugenio Castellotti (Ferrari), Hawthorn (Jaguar), and Fangio (Mercedes-Benz) were at the head of the field in the first hour. The other team cars were being kept on tighter leashes to conserve

27331-455: The track to take victory. Fangio took second and his fourth Drivers' Championship. 1957 saw the organizers choose to use the road circuit only, as the rough, poorly constructed banking had caused problems for the Ferrari and Maserati cars the year before. Moss won again in a Vanwall, and Briton Tony Brooks won next year's race, and Moss won the 1959 event in a Cooper-Climax. 1960 , however

27512-442: The track where he was instantly killed. Large pieces of debris, including the Mercedes' engine block , radiator , front suspension , and bonnet (hood), were sent flying into the packed spectator area in front of the grandstand. The rear of Levegh's car landed on the berm and exploded into flames. There was much debate over blame for the disaster. The official inquiry held none of the drivers specifically responsible and criticised

27693-441: The track. Campari broke his neck and was killed instantly, and Borzacchini died later that day in a Monza hospital. Prior to the final, there was a drivers meeting to discuss the oil patch, and it was decided to clean it up. On the eighth lap, Polish aristocrat Count Stanislas Czaykowski was on the south banking when his Bugatti's engine blew up, and a fuel line then broke. The fuel from the Bugatti's tank caught fire after touching

27874-469: The unprotected pit-wall, just short of the Cunningham and Mercedes-Benz pits where Shell and Lockheed equipment were stationed, running down a policeman, a photographer and two officials (all seriously injured), then rebounded back across the track again to end up skating down the left-side fence for a second time. Macklin survived the incident without serious injury, jumping out of the wreck and over

28055-425: The very hot front section of the Bugatti where the engine and gearbox were and the burning fuel sprayed onto Czaykowski. Blinded by the smoke and flames on him, he went up and flew off the banking- at the same spot where Campari and Borzacchini had crashed. The Polish driver, unable to put out the flames on his body which was fuelled by the fuel from his wrecked Bugatti, then burned to death. Frenchman Marcel Lehoux in

28236-659: The working languages of the Council of Europe . It is the third-most-widely spoken native language in the European Union (13% of the EU population) and it is spoken as a second language by 13.4 million EU citizens (3%). Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland, Albania and the United Kingdom ) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is approximately 85 million. Italian

28417-620: The world at that time; Brooklands in England and Indianapolis in the United States were the two others. European motor racing pioneers Vincenzo Lancia and Felice Nazzaro laid the last two bricks at Monza. The circuit was 10 km (6.25 miles) long, with a flat banked section and a road circuit combined into one. It was fast, and always provided excitement. The 1923 race included one of Harry A. Miller 's rare European appearances with his single seat "American Miller 122" driven by Count Louis Zborowski of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang fame. Zborowski

28598-435: Was "momentarily mesmerized by the legend of the Mercedes superiority ... Then I came to my senses and thought 'Damn it, why should a German car beat a British car. ' " The lap before, Hawthorn's pit crew had signalled for him to come in the next lap . He had just lapped Levegh (running sixth) after Arnage (one of the corners of the race track) and was determined to keep Fangio at bay for as long as he could. Coming out of

28779-484: Was a reported patch of oil on the south banking that had come from a Duesenberg, driven by Count Carlo Felice Trossi , and Giuseppe Campari in a Ferrari-entered Alfa Romeo and his protege Baconin Borzacchini in a Maserati were already battling ferociously; and Borzacchini and Campari went through the south banking on the first lap, wheel to wheel. Borzacchini went through the oily patch, lost control, spun wildly and

28960-561: Was also introduced to Somalia through colonialism and was the sole official language of administration and education during the colonial period but fell out of use after government, educational and economic infrastructure were destroyed in the Somali Civil War . Italian is also spoken by large immigrant and expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. Although over 17 million Americans are of Italian descent , only

29141-525: Was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy , but King Victor Emmanuel II did not agree to it. Italian is generally understood in Corsica by the population resident therein who speak Corsican , which is an Italo-Romance idiom similar to Tuscan. Francization occurred in Nice case, and caused a near-disappearance of the Italian language as many of the Italian speakers in these areas migrated to Italy. In Corsica, on

29322-542: Was announced that the Autodromo Dino Ferrari, also known as Imola, would host the Italian Grand Prix for 1980 while Monza underwent a major upgrade, including building a new pit complex. The Imola circuit had been used for a non-championship event in 1979 and had hosted a variety of non-championship races since 1953; this circuit was closer to the Ferrari factory in Maranello. Imola's one-time running of

29503-427: Was completely non-existent. The circuit's condition was virtually identical of that to an ordinary town and country road, except instead of the surface being made of dirt and/or tarmac, it was made of tarmac, concrete and/or bricks. Spectators often stood very close to or even next to the track and they had no protection of any kind other than common sense. What was particularly tragic about the 41-year old Campari's death

29684-528: Was feared that there would be no finishers for the race itself. Briton Bob Anderson's Lola crashed after losing a wheel on the banking, although he was not injured); the drivers then threatened to walk off unless they raced on the road circuit only, which is what happened. Jim Clark won the race in a Lotus. Ferrari driver John Surtees won in 1964 , and Briton Jackie Stewart won his first of 27 Grand Prix victories in 1965 , driving for BRM. Against team orders, he fought hard with his teammate Graham Hill, Hill made

29865-432: Was killed at the following year's Grand Prix at Monza driving a Mercedes. The 1928 race was the first of many tragedies that befell this venue. Italians Emilio Materassi in a Talbot and Giulio Foresti in a Bugatti were battling around the fast circuit. As they came off the banking onto the left side of the pit straight at 125 mph (200 km/h), one of the front wheels of Materassi's overtaking Talbot touched one of

30046-404: Was killed in 1955 testing a Ferrari sportscar. Like the year before, Peterson won and Fittipaldi finished second, now driving for McLaren. 1975 , however, was an event to remember. Ferrari, which had regrouped completely under the leadership of Luca di Montezemolo , reached the high point of its resurgence. The Ferrari camp was feeling relaxed while rising star and championship leader Niki Lauda

30227-483: Was leading the Drivers' Championship, and the team was leading the Constructors' Championship. Fittipaldi and Argentine Carlos Reutemann had to win in order to have a chance at staying in the championship chase. When the race started, Lauda's teammate Clay Regazzoni took the lead, with Lauda following; and Fittipaldi stormed round the circuit in an effort to catch the two Ferraris. Fittipaldi passed Lauda for second but this did not matter as Lauda only needed fifth to secure

30408-757: Was lifted in May 2022. The next round of the World Sportscar Championship at the Nürburgring was cancelled, as was the non-championship Carrera Panamericana . The rest of the 1955 World Sportscar Championship season was completed, with the remaining two races at the British RAC Tourist Trophy and the Italian Targa Florio , although they were not run until September and October, several months after

30589-443: Was mirrored by a decline in the use of the dialects. An increase in literacy was one of the main driving factors (one can assume that only literates were capable of learning Standard Italian, whereas those who were illiterate had access only to their native dialect). The percentage of literates rose from 25% in 1861 to 60% in 1911, and then on to 78.1% in 1951. Tullio De Mauro , an Italian linguist, has asserted that in 1861 only 2.5% of

30770-416: Was no victory celebration. However, a press photograph showed Hawthorn smiling on the podium drinking from the victor's bottle of champagne. The French magazine L'Auto-Journal published it with the sarcastic caption, " À votre santé, Monsieur Hawthorn! " (In English, "To your health ('Cheers'), Mr. Hawthorn!") Accounts put the death toll at 80 to 84 (spectators plus Levegh), either by flying debris or from

30951-423: Was not part of any championship. A yellow background indicates an event which was part of the pre- war European Championship . A green background indicates an event which was part of the pre- war World Manufacturers' Championship . Italian language Italian ( italiano , pronounced [itaˈljaːno] , or lingua italiana , pronounced [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna] )

31132-400: Was not so straightforward. Ferrari with their front-engined cars, had lost out to the advanced mid-engined British cars. Seeing an opportunity, the Italian organizers decided to re-include the banking with the road circuit, making Monza even faster and more in favour to the powerful Ferraris. The British teams were unhappy as they cited the fragility of the banking, which was extremely rough, had

31313-445: Was now building his own cars instead of running Alfa Romeos. 1950 saw the new Formula One Championship being established. The race and the first championship was won by Giuseppe "Nino" Farina , driving a supercharged Alfa Romeo 158 . 1951 saw Ascari win again, after the competitive Alfas of Farina and Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio ran into engine problems. 1952 saw Ascari complete his domination of that season. 1953 Fangio won in

31494-443: Was patiently waiting to pass. Levegh had no time to evade, and with possibly his last action, raised his hand, warning Fangio, thereby probably saving Fangio's life. With his eyes shut, Fangio – with his own quick reflexes – squeezed through the carnage and brushed Hawthorn's then-stationary Jaguar in the pits, allowing him to pass unscathed. Levegh's front-right wheel rode up onto the rear-left corner of Macklin's car, which acted as

31675-658: Was replaced by the French. This was due to the annexation of the surrounding County of Nice to France following the Treaty of Turin (1860) . It formerly had official status in Montenegro (because of the Venetian Albania ), parts of Slovenia and Croatia (because of the Venetian Istria and Venetian Dalmatia ), parts of Greece (because of the Venetian rule in the Ionian Islands and by

31856-410: Was sold to several private buyers before appearing on the public auction block. In 1969, it was bought for £ 155 (equivalent to £3,222 in 2023). In December 2011, the car, estimated to raise £800,000 before the auction, was sold for £843,000. The car retained the original engine SPL 261-BN, but was reported to be in ' barn find ' condition. It was then restored to its original condition. After

32037-470: Was that he had announced his retirement at the French Grand Prix two months earlier, to focus on his opera singing exploits. After the disastrous 1933 race, something had to be done to Monza. In 1934 a short version of Florio Circuit (introduced in 1930 for Monza Grand Prix) was used: the drivers had to start from the main straight but taking the south curve of the high speed ring (interrupted by

32218-489: Was that the Curva Sud was moved slightly to the north. This course was combined with the road course for the 1955 event , which was won by Fangio and was the last race contested by a full-fledged Mercedes factory effort in Formula One until 2010. The 10 km Monza circuit was now so fast that F1 cars were averaging 135+ mph per lap- though rather unremarkable by today's standards, these average speeds were even faster than

32399-547: Was to see yet another tragedy. Two Ferrari drivers, Hill and German count Wolfgang von Trips , came into the race with a chance at winning the championship. Fighting for fourth place while Hill was leading and while von Trips approached the Parabolica, the Briton Jim Clark slightly moved over into the path of the German and the two collided. Von Trips crashed into an embankment next to the road and then went flying into

32580-584: Was used. These races were at a time when Mercedes and Auto Union became involved in motor racing; the German Silver Arrows won all of these races; with superstar Rudolf Caracciola winning in 1934 and in 1937 when the Italian Grand Prix was held at a street circuit in Livorno. 1938 saw a return to Monza, which was won by Nuvolari driving a mid-engined Auto Union; just after the race renovation works began but in 1939 World War II broke out and

32761-421: Was very reluctant, but given Hawthorn's condition had no choice, as Dewis firmly pointed out to him. John Fitch, Levegh's American co-driver, had suited up and was ready to take over the car at the upcoming pit stop, and was standing with Levegh's wife, Denise Bouillin. They saw the whole catastrophe unfold. Levegh's lifeless body, severely burned, lay in full view on the pavement until a gendarme hauled down

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