Ep85: The Insider's Travel Guide to Monza and Sepang with Stewart Bell

Two race trips dominate this episode: Monza next week, and Sepang, hosting Malaysia's first Formula 1 race since 2017.

Journalist and author Stewart Bell has worked both. At Monza he explains what the oldest track on the calendar feels like on foot: the historic banking too steep to walk up, and Ascari taken at speeds that look impossible from trackside. The practical layer is all here too. Stay in Milan near a metro, take the train from Milano Centrale in roughly 25 minutes, and leave the car alone. Then eat properly: risotto alla Milanese, cotoletta, and aperitivo with a Select Spritz instead of an Aperol.

Sepang is a different trip. The circuit sits beside the airport but more than an hour from Kuala Lumpur, so Stewart shares how he plans a race weekend there, along with the guided street food day in Chinatown that produced the best laksa of his life, and what to do in KL beyond the track.

On the racing, Kimi Antonelli takes his engine penalty at his home race, which Di rates as a smart call by Mercedes, and by Stewart's numbers Ferrari's upgrades are worth around 30 horsepower, though Mercedes start as favourites.

Hanging over it all: Formula 1 has until mid-September to decide whether Qatar and Abu Dhabi can host the final rounds. Stewart says the fallback is Imola in December, with rumours of Malaysia again and even China opening next season.

Di is gutted about not being in Monza. Happier news from Stewart: his book cracked Amazon's overall top 100 in its first week and regularly sits in the top 10 list for motorsport books. And the best news, his publisher Penguin are interested in book two.

Next week: the Italian Grand Prix from Monza.

In this episode:

Stewart's promotional tour: radio spots, a nerve-wracking live cross on the Today Show, and the book hitting Amazon's overall top 100 in its first weekBook two is confirmed with Penguin but the topic isn't, and Di invites listeners to drop suggestions in the commentsWhat Monza feels like in person: the banking, the Tifosi, and Ascari at speeds that look impossibleDi on Mercedes taking Kimi Antonelli's engine penalty at his home race, and Stewart on the chance it gives him to fight through the fieldFerrari's engine upgrades, worth around 30 horsepower in total by Stewart's estimate, against Mercedes as outright favouritesGetting to the circuit: trains from Milano Centrale in roughly 25 minutes, the Biassono Lesmo Parco station on the Lesmo side, and why driving isn't worth itWhat to eat in Milan: risotto alla Milanese, cotoletta alla Milanese, and aperitivo with a Select Spritz instead of an AperolThe waiter in Puglia who flatly refused to make a cappuccino after lunchSepang hosts the relocated Bahrain Grand Prix, Malaysia's first F1 race since 2017: right beside the airport, over an hour from KL, with a direct train to the circuitStewart's private street food tour through Chinatown, and the grey shrimp paste that transformed a bowl of asam laksaKL beyond the track: the Petronas Towers, hornbills at the Bird Park, the Batu Caves, and roti canai for under three dollarsThe mid-September deadline on Qatar and Abu Dhabi, the Imola fallback, and rumours of China opening next season

Hosted by Dianne Bortoletto, Instagram @travelletto.

Stewart Bell is a journalist, broadcaster and author of Formula 1: The World's Most Brutal Sport, published by Penguin.

Get the book: https://amzn.to/4nAWaNj