Last week, the double World Champion Fernando Alonso clinched victory at the Italian GP after starting the 53-lap race from pole position.Massa finished third behind his team-mate Fernando Alonso, who leapfrogged Jenson Button during the pit stops to take victory.For today, we will give some information about the technical updates at the Italian GP.

NEW REGULATION – PLANK LENGTH > 11 SEP 2010

At Monza, the FIA have introduced a new rule which means it is now prohibited to run a section of plank less than 1000mm in length. The plank is a hard wooden strip (also known as a skid block) fitted down the middle of a car’s underside (see red arrow). This regulation is designed to prevent teams from running ‘articulated’ planks that are made up of multiple pieces.

ADDITIONAL FLOOR LOAD TEST > 11 SEP 2010

The FIA carry out load tests to ascertain whether a car’s floor flexes beyond the permitted 5mm under a 200kg load. The test, which uses a piston in the centre of the floor (see inset), was introduced at the 2007 Spanish Grand Prix following the controversy surrounding Ferrari’s ‘moveable’ floor device. At Monza the sport’s governing body has introduced an even stricter test, which sees the same weight also applied to the side of the floor, 100mm from the centre line (see main illustration).

FERRARI F10 – UPDATED FRONT WING > 11 SEP 2010

Both Ferraris are also a running revised front wing at Monza as part of the team’s low-downforce package for this circuit. It features an almost straight main plane (2), and the main flap (1) and upper flap (3) both have a far lower angle of incidence than seen at most tracks.

FERRARI F10 – REVISED REAR WING > 11 SEP 2010

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa ran different rear aero packages on their cars at the last round in Spa. But at Monza, the Italian team are running the same low-downforce package on both F10s. The rear wing is fitted with a revised F-duct, which features a much smaller pipe inside the engine cover. In addition, the endplates no longer have gills and the main plane and flap have a smaller chord.

RENAULT R30 – REVISED FRONT WING > 12 SEP 2010

In Monza, Renault have been running a new front wing. This is based on the previous version, but it has been simplified with no upper flaps and a multiple endplate section (bottom arrow). The ‘V’ cut in the main flap (top arrow) creates a kind of vortex, which energises the airflow under the car’s central section.

MP4-25 – LOW-DOWNFORCE REAR SET-UP > 12 SEP 2010

McLaren team mates Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton decided to run different set-ups for the Monza race. Button used the F-duct and the Spa-spec rear wing, which features quite a big flap. Hamilton decided to use a very low-downforce rear wing, shown here, with last year’s end plates, and didn’t use the F-duct. On Saturday the set-up gave Hamilton a 14km/h advantage over Button, with the qualifying speed trap recording 344.3 and 329.5 respectively for the duo.