Sebastian Vettel: “Without a doubt, Monza 2008 is one of my best memories, as it was where I scored my first F1 win, after taking my very first F1 pole. It was a perfect weekend and one I will remember always, whatever else I achieve during my career. To take this win with Scuderia Toro Rosso, an Italian team, in its home race, with Gerhard Berger standing next to me on the podium, seeing all the team members down beneath us, cheering and crying with joy was an unbelievably emotional experience.

"Monza is in any case a special appointment on the calendar as you can really feel the history of the place, especially as, just a short walk from the paddock, you can see impressive banked corners of the old oval track. The modern circuit is all about having a car that rides the kerbs well at the many chicanes. Even though they were put in to reduce the speed of the cars, this is still the fastest circuit on the calendar and the one where we run the lowest downforce. While this gives you top speed, it also makes the car more unstable through the turns, under braking and accelerating out of the corners, so it is a very interesting high speed challenge.

"Things have changed a lot in the space of 12 months. Although at this point last year, the Toro Rosso car was improving and even if we saw we were competitive even in Friday practice, my pole and win were something of a surprise to everyone. This year, Red Bull Racing and me and Mark are fighting for the Championship titles, so we are considered front-runners. It doesn’t put me under any more pressure, but it does mean that our expectations are higher.”