The Formula 1 engineer’s guide to the 2025 Italian Grand Prix at Monza

Formula 2 and Formula 3 also converge on this circuit, with the latter championship concluding at Monza.

Pirelli’s tyre selection mirrors that of 2024; the hard is the C3, the medium is the C4, and the soft is the C5. 

Since 2020, Monza has had four different winners, and it was in 2024 that Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc brought the home crowd to raptures of joy when he took a momentous victory. This year, Lewis Hamilton aims for similar success in his first Italian GP with Ferrari.

In principle, it’s a simple lap that comprises just 11 corners.

The long start-finish straight at Monza leads to the opening low-speed Rettifilo chicane before the high-speed Curva Grande (Turn 2), another low-speed chicane in Della Roggia (Turns 4 and 5), then the medium-speed Lesmos (Turns 6 and 7), the rapid Ascari chicane (Turns 8, 9 and 10), and the high-speed Parabolica (Turn 11) to end the lap. 

Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team deputy performance engineer Tim Wright explains the set-up demands at the ‘temple of speed’.

Length: 5.793 kilometres

Number of laps: 53

Number of turns: 11

 

Tim Wright: “Monza’s the stand-out track in terms of efficiency: how effectively an F1 car generates downforce while minimising drag.

 

“If you go to Monaco, and you want to add some downforce in the windtunnel, you don’t need to worry about how much drag you’re adding to the car - because it’s such a low-speed circuit.

“But Monza is different. You’ve got to be so careful with how much drag you’re putting on the car because that’s where the laptime is gained. You spend a lot more time in the straights at Monza than at most other circuits so being that much quicker in the straights is worth that much more.

“I think only Las Vegas would be similar to Monza in terms of efficiency demands.

“The key at Monza is working out how low you can go in terms of rear wing angle without making the corners extremely painful. That pretty much sums it up.”