Italian Grand Prix 2026

Monza

When was the track built?

Monza was built in 1922 inside a royal park north of Milan, and did it in a hurry, taking only a few months from first ground being broken to cars running. The original complex combined a road course with a high-speed banked oval, and the crumbling remains of that banking still stand in the trees. The layout has been softened repeatedly over the decades, with chicanes added from the 1970s onwards to slow cars that had become far too fast for the old flat-out configuration.

When was its first Grand Prix?

The Italian Grand Prix arrived at Monza in 1922, the year the circuit opened, and the venue has been the race’s near-permanent home ever since. It has appeared on every world championship calendar since the series began in 1950 with a single exception, when the 1980 running went to Imola while Monza was being reworked. That gives it the longest continuous run of any circuit in the sport, and a good deal of the reverence that comes with it.

What’s the circuit like?

The fastest lap on the calendar and the lowest downforce weekend of the year. Three long straights, punctuated by heavy braking into two chicanes and the Rettifilo, mean the wings come off and the engine department takes over. Brakes work hard because the deceleration events are enormous, but the corners themselves are few, so tyre loading is comparatively gentle and degradation is rarely the story. Overtaking is straightforward by modern standards, with big slipstreams and multiple genuine passing zones. The compromise is the killer: too little wing and you are hopeless through Lesmo and Ascari, too much and you are a sitting duck on the straights.

Why go?

Nothing else in the sport sounds like Monza on Sunday afternoon. The tifosi fill the park, the atmosphere carries a slightly religious quality, and if a red car does anything of note the noise is extraordinary. Early September in Lombardy is usually warm, Milan is twenty minutes away by train, and the venue itself is a public park with shade, food, and the ruined old banking to walk if you fancy a break from the noise. It is one of the great cheap-and-cheerful weekends if you are willing to stand.

Where is the best place to watch?

The main grandstands at the start-finish line put you above the pit lane and the run to the first chicane, which is where most of the drama happens on lap one. Stands at the Roggia and the first Lesmo give you cars at genuine speed with braking on show. The Parabolica grandstands are the connoisseur’s pick, watching drivers commit to a long right-hander before the sprint to the flag. General admission around Ascari is excellent value and offers the best view of a car being properly wrestled.