Autodromo Nazionale Monza

Monza, Italy

The Circuit

Monza is the oldest purpose-built motor racing circuit still in use, and it remains unique in the Formula 1 calendar. The Temple of Speed, as it is known, sits in a royal park north of Milan and has hosted the Italian Grand Prix almost every year since 1950. Its combination of the longest straights on the calendar with three chicanes inserted to control speed makes it unlike anything else Formula 1 visits — a place where top speed is worth more than downforce, and where engineers make genuinely compromised setup choices to maximise straight-line performance.

Characteristics

The layout is essentially a series of long straights — the main straight, the Curva Grande approach, the back straight from Lesmo to the Ascari complex, and the Parabolica run onto the main straight — connected by chicanes and two banked Lesmo corners. Teams run their minimum wing angles of the entire season at Monza, sometimes generating less than a quarter of the downforce they'd run at Monaco. The consequence is that the cars are more sensitive to braking and the slippery corner entries require precise technique, but the reward is the ability to tow a rival down to 360+ km/h on the straights.

Strategy

The low degradation at Monza, combined with minimal mechanical grip from the low-downforce setup, usually makes this a one-stop race. Undercuts are weak because the follow-on laps on fresh tyres don't offer the same time gains as on a high-degradation circuit — the tyres rarely slide enough to build heat quickly on an out-lap. Overcuts can occasionally work if a driver is stuck in traffic. DRS on the main straight and back straight is particularly powerful, with trains of four or five cars often forming on race pace as slipstream effects cause the gaps between them to oscillate constantly. Read about the undercut →

Reading the Telemetry

The Monza speed trace is the most distinctive on the calendar: three high-speed peaks connected by sharp, brief braking events at each chicane. The flat-top sections on the main and back straights where DRS is active are clearly visible. Compare two cars through the Ascari complex — the tightest chicane — and you'll see the biggest spread in minimum speed across the whole season here. Drivers who brake latest and nail the kerb-riding through Ascari recover speed fastest onto the Parabolica straight, and the delta chart shows this as a large swing right at the chicane exit. How to read a speed trace →

Key Corners