Round nine of the 2020 Formula One World Championship takes us this weekend to the Mugello circuit, officially the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello, in Italy's beautiful Tuscany region.
Mugello is an old circuit, having been opened in 1974, but it's never hosted an F1 race before. It was selected as the site for this weekend's special Tuscan Grand Prix as part of the revised 2020 calendar, and was only announced a few months ago which means teams have had very little time to prepare.
Perhaps the best circuit with which to compare Mugello is Suzuka. Like the Japanese circuit, Mugello sees fast corners and complex elevation changes, and is very narrow.
The 15 corners are mainly medium to high speed, with no tight chicanes or big braking zones throughout the 3.2-mile lap. The right-hand Arrabbiata corners are the two quickest corners of the track, probably taken flat-out at speeds of more than 160 mph.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc during practice for the 2020 Formula One Tuscan Grand Prix
The track surface is very aggressive, which together with the high-speed corners, will place a lot of demand on the tires. As a result, Pirelli has nominated its harder C1, C2 and C3 compounds.
As for the weather forecast, we should be in for fine conditions during Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's race.
Going into the weekend, Mercedes-AMG's Lewis Hamilton leads the 2020 Drivers' Championship with a total 164 points. Fellow Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas is second with 117 points and Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen is third with 110 points. In the Constructors' Championship, Mercedes leads with 281 points versus the 158 of Red Bull and 98 of McLaren.
For the first time this year, spectators will be permitted, though with numbers capped at 3,000 on each of the days. We're sure many will be there to help Ferrari celebrate its 1,000th F1 race this weekend. To mark the occasion, Ferrari's cars will feature a darker red paint that matches the color used on the first Ferrari, the 125 S of 1947.
