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All eyes are on Giancarlo Fisichella this weekend, an Italian driver in an Italian car on an Italian track. With Ferrari confirming that Fisichella will be finishing the season with the prancing horse is great news for the aging driver as he nears the end of his career after 226 Grand Prix starts. The Monza circuit is well suited to KERS equipped cars and Ferrari rarely performs badly at home.

In fact, the Ferrari team is looking like they may perform quite well this weekend after Kimi Raikkonen finished first in Belgium and Fisichella was able to take his Force India car to second. However, there is much debate over how Fisichella will perform with the first practice session to be his first drive in the F60.

This weekend will mark the sixtieth running of the Italian Grand Prix. The track at Monza is comprised mostly of long straights which are linked by chicanes and will be the perfect setting for those cars equipped with KERS. Around 75% of the track is spent at full throttle and any reliability issues could become a serious problem.

It is a serious possibility that the Renault team can get their cars up near the front as they are dusting of their KERS system for this weekend’s grand prix. Fernando Alonso was able to achieve a pole position in Hungary and even made a challenge for the podium in Belgium. Renault could be a serious contender for the Italian GP.

With Giancarlo Fisichella’s move to Ferrari, the championship battle has been moved out of the spotlight. The battle between Brawn GP and Red Bull is still there, but it is likely that it will be a feature on the middle order on Sunday.

Championship leader, Jenson Button will be enjoying the fact that it is unlikely that his championship rivals will take many points from him here at Monza. However, if he does not produce results himself, it is a possibility that he will have the championship lead taken from him in the coming weeks.

Even if Fisichella hadn’t moved to Ferrari, he would more than likely still be drawing all the attention. After taking pole position in his Force India car at Spa, and then finishing second, he will be expected to repeat this form.

Force India may have another chance to take a win at Monza as their car is well suited to the track. It has now been proven that with a low down-force set-up, the Force India car is dynamite and Monza requires lower down-force than that of Spa. The team has a great chance to be the fastest of the non-KERS cars in Italy.

Betfair has some great odds for this weekend’s grand prix and I would recommend Kimi Raikkonen for a first place finish, paying $6. Another sound bet would be for Giancarlo Fisichella to finish on the podium with odds of $4.80.

It has been an unforgettable year for Australian Formula 1 driver Mark Webber. For years he has been carrying the tag of ‘the unluckiest man in racing’ driving cars that simply weren’t up to scratch. But in 2009 his luck seems to have changed as his team, Red Bull Racing, and new comers Braun have over taken the likes of Mclaren and Ferrari to become the top teams in the competition.

Braun are the surprise leaders and are storming away with the constructors championships, but with Red Bull taking first and second in Britain there is no doubt that are catching. Mark Webber made his fourth podium finish behind team mate Sebastian Vettel and will go into the next race in Germany full of confidence and fully expecting to take out his first F1 victory. But can the Australian really pull it off? God Knows the guy deserves it and with the Red Bull car absolutely flying at the moment there is no reason why he can’t.

The only downfall for him may be that his team mate Sebastian Vettel is ahead of him in the drivers standing and the Red Bull team may go with a stratergy that suits him rather than Webber. But if Webber can make pole and then just keep his cool in to the first turn it will be his race to lose. Go to Sportsbet now for your free bet on Red Bull pulling in Braun in the Constructors Championships it is well worth a little punt.

While we are all hoping that Webber can produce some magic in Germany we also hoping that he can keep it up in to next years championships in Melbourne, which is now back on after some doubt over the F1 season for 2010. It was looking as though there could be two seperate factions when eight of the top teams including Mark Webbers Red Bull team decided that they would pull out of F1 in 2010.

The decision to quit had come after F1 bosses decidied to cut team spending to just $40 million for next season, but with the likes of Ferrari and Mclaren regularly spending three times that the decision had caused alot of unreast. But after last-ditch talks between FIA president Max Mosley, FOTA chairman Luca di Montezemolo and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, an agreement was reached that commits the teams to the sport until 2012. It is great news for racing fans and great news for Webber who can now take his competetive team to Melbourne and put on a show for his home crowd.

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