Did you know that Monza is the most visited track in Formula One History, having hosted all but one Italian Grand Prix since 1950?

Here are some super interesting facts published by the FIA, about the Italian Grand Prix to get your mouth watering ahead of this weekend’s Formula 1 Gran Premio d’Italia 2013 at Monza.

• The Italian Grand Prix has been run 63 times and all but one race has taken place at Monza. The only exception was the 1980 Italian Grand Prix which was held at Imola, a track which is now more commonly associated with the San Marino Grand Prix.

• Monza was one of seven tracks on the original Formula 1 world championship calendar in 1950. There are three others that are still on the calendar – Silverstone, Monaco and Spa-Francorchamps.

• The circuit layout for the first world championship race at Monza, in 1950, was mostly similar in shape to today’s, except without the chicanes. The chicanes were introduced in 1972 to slow the cars down and have remained ever since, with several revisions of course.

• Michael Schumacher holds the record for the most Italian Grand Prix wins with five. He is just one ahead of Nelson Piquet who won the race twice for Brabham and twice for Williams.

• Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel have the best records of any current driver at the Italian Grand Prix. They have both won twice at Monza. Vettel’s 2008 victory was the first of his F1 career and saw him surpass Alonso’s record as the youngest winner in F1 history at 21 years, 2 months and 11 days old.

• Ferrari are the most successful team in Italian Grand Prix history. The scarlet cars have 18 wins, 45 other podiums and 19 pole positions at the Italian Grand Prix. Their last win at Monza came with Fernando Alonso in 2010.

• The opposite is true for Red Bull. Very surprisingly, they’ve only recorded one podium in Italy (Vettel’s victory in 2011) – the same as Toro Rosso (whose podium was also Vettel’s, in 2008).

• The 2005 Italian Grand Prix is one of only four F1 world championship races in history in which there were no retirements.

• Monza is the scene of the fastest ever Grand Prix which took place in 2003. Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher completed the race at an average speed of 247.585 km/h.

• The same race was also the shortest full-duration race in Formula 1 history. It lasted only 1 hour 14 minutes and 19.838 seconds.

• The fastest pole-position lap in F1 history was also recorded at Monza. And, it was also in a Ferrari. But this time, the record was set by Rubens Barichello who completed his 2004 Italian Grand Prix pole lap pole lap at an average of 260.395 km/h.

• Only three Italians have the Italian Grand Prix – Farina (who won the first world championship Italian GP in 1950), Ascari (‘51, ‘52) and Ludovico Scarfiotti (‘66).

• The last Italian driver to finish the Italian Grand Prix on the podium was Giancarlo Fisichella in 2005.

• Rubens Barrichello holds the lap record for Monza in its current configuration – 1m 21.046s. The time was set in 2004 in a Ferrari.

• In the past ten races at Monza, the polesitter has won eight times. However, Monza does not favour the pole man. In fact, in the 62 previous world championship Grands Prix at the circuit, the pole sitter has won only 20 times.

• Of the last ten Italian Grand Prix races at Monza, four have featured the safety car.

• According to Mercedes, the drivers race at full throttle for a crazy 77 percent of the lap distance! The longest time at full throttle is 16 seconds. Drivers will change their gears an average of 46 times per lap which equates to 2,438 gear changes over the 53-lap race.

Photo credit: Ascari chasing down Fangio at the 1954 Italian Grand Prix.

Wikimedia Commons license. Photo is in the public domain.