Esteban Gutierrez is excited to be returning to the Autodromo Nazionale Monza for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.
The Haas F1 Team driver finished the Belgian Grand Prix in twelfth, ahead of team-mate Romain Grosjean. Gutierrez did run for sometime inside the top ten, but was unable to maintain this positioning, continuing to be unsuccessful in breaking his points duck.
With Monza being the fastest track Formula 1 visits, drivers are able to reach high speeds by the many different high-speed sections.
“It’s interesting because you have a lot of high-speed sections, mainly straight-line sections with very low downforce,” said Gutierrez. “This is directly affecting the braking of the slow-speed corners.
“When you have a long period of time when you’re braking, obviously the downforce is important, but the fact that you get very low downforce on this track, you need to cope with the car in different ways and you need to adapt the setup for that.”
With using Ferrari engines, the Italian Grand Prix can be seen as a second home with the Ferrari fans supporting Haas, and Gutierrez is excited to see the support from the Italians, especially after his year as reserve driver with the Italian outfit in 2015.
“It’s one of the classics,” added Gutierrez. “The people, the atmosphere, the Italians, Ferrari fans, and we’re using Ferrari engines.
“So it’s great to come there and enjoy nice support from the Italians, especially for me being part of Ferrari last year directly as a third driver put me very close to Italy.”