After the Finn's Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa led a Ferrari one-two in Turkey last month, the home fans will be hoping for a repeat performance at Formula One's fastest and oldest circuit.
Only this time, Raikkonen intends to be in the leading Ferrari.
With just 16 points separating McLaren's championship leading rookie Lewis Hamilton from fourth placed Raikkonen, and only five races remaining, the season is now entering its decisive phase.
Briton Hamilton is five points clear of double world champion team-mate Fernando Alonso with Massa 10 adrift of the Spaniard.
All four title contenders have won three races each in one of the closest championships in years and the next two weekends, with Belgium following immediately after Italy, could make or break their hopes.
"All the upcoming races are crucial," Raikkonen told the Ferrari website (www.ferrariworld.com). "We cannot commit any more mistakes.
"The team gives 110 per cent and we have to beat our competitors and need to gain more points than them every time."
Ferrari took an emotional win at Monza last September, with seven times world champion Schumacher chalking up his 90th victory before announcing his retirement and welcoming Raikkonen as his successor.
The Italian team have won their home race four times in five years and Raikkonen has the best record at Monza of the leading quartet, finishing second last year with McLaren and fourth on two other occasions.
Testing times
McLaren, 11 points clear of Ferrari pending an appeal into their loss of constructors' points at last month's Hungarian Grand Prix and a second hearing into their involvement in a spying controversy, were quick in testing at Monza last week.
"Looking at the times, I think you can say that we have a fierce fight ahead of us," Raikkonen declared.
"But you never know how much fuel the others use during the tests, so we'll only see during the qualifying what the situation is really like."
"It will be really special to feel the heat of the Tifosi (fans)," the Finn added.
"I can't wait to see all the flags with the Prancing Horse on the grandstands."
Alonso has bitter memories of the circuit, telling reporters last year that he no longer considered Formula One a sport after he was controversially demoted five places on the starting grid for impeding Massa's Ferrari.
He failed to finish that race, retiring with an engine problem while in third place, but still went on to win his second successive title with Renault.
"Last year did not give me any good memories but it is a track that I would really like to win at, so hopefully we can make that happen in 2007," the Spaniard said in a team preview.
"The Monza track is not like any other we race on during the season, it is all about high speeds. The cars always feel so different, very light and not always under control to be honest."
Hamilton, 22, will be fired up to put behind him the frustration of last month's Turkish GP, where he finished fifth after suffering a puncture 15 laps from the end while in a strong third place.
Monza
Lap distance: 5.793 km/3.600 miles.
Total distance: 53 laps (306.720 km/190.596 miles).
2006 pole: Kimi Raikkonen, McLaren 1:21.484.
Race lap record: Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari - 1: 21.046 (2004).
2006 Italian GP
• Seven times champion Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) took a 90th career win and then announced his retirement.
Renault's Fernando Alonso was demoted five places on the starting grid for impeding Ferrari's Felipe Massa in qualifying. He retired with a blown engine.
Circuit details
• Monza is Formula One's oldest and fastest circuit, with cars reaching speeds of more than 360kph and averaging more than 240kph a lap. It takes a heavy toll on brakes and engines.
Set in a royal park to the north-east of Milan, Monza has been home to every Italian Grand Prix since 1950 with the exception of 1980 when the race moved to Imola. No other circuit has hosted more grands prix. The first race there was in 1922.
Tragedies include the deaths in 1961 of Ferrari driver Wolfgang von Trips and 14 spectators, killed when the German crashed into the crowd. Von Trips had been heading for the title, won by American team mate Phil Hill.
Austrian Jochen Rindt was killed in qualifying at the Parabolica curve in 1970 and became Formula One's only posthumous champion
Statistics
• McLaren's double world champion Fernando Alonso, rookie team mate Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa have all won three races this season. Hamilton, 22, leads Alonso by five points with five races remaining.
BMW Sauber's fifth placed Nick Heidfeld is 37 points adrift of Hamilton and is likely to drop out of the mathematical reckoning after this weekend.
• Alonso has scored points in his last 15 races. The Spaniard is the only driver to have scored in every race this year. Ferrari's retired champion Michael Schumacher holds the record for most successive races in the points - 24 from 2001 to 2003.
• Ferrari have won four of the last five races at Monza. Briton David Coulthard and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello are the only current drivers to have won at the circuit.
• The last Italian to win at Monza was Ferrari's Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966. The last to stand on the podium was Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella, third in 2005.