Monza

The Temple of Speed

Monza sits in a royal park north of Milan and opened in 1922, one of the first purpose-built racing circuits in the world. It has hosted top-level motor racing for more than a century, and it does one thing better than anywhere else: speed.

The layout is mostly long straights, broken up by three tight chicanes and a couple of quick corners, then a long final bend onto the pit straight. Cars run the lowest-downforce setup of the season, with the wings trimmed almost flat to cut drag. The result is the highest average speed of any circuit the junior categories visit, and long stretches at full throttle where cars run nose to tail in the slipstream.

That combination, big straights and heavy braking into slow chicanes, is what makes Monza a passing track. For a guide to the categories themselves, start with what Formula 2 is and how F2 and F3 differ.

The lap

One lap of the Grand Prix circuit, the same one Formula 2 and Formula 3 use, runs like this.

1. Variante del Rettifilo
   The first chicane, at the end of the long start straight. Cars arrive at well over 300 km/h and brake hard for a tight right-left. The heaviest braking zone on the track, and the classic overtaking spot.
2. Curva Grande
   A long, fast right-hand sweep taken at very high speed, leading onto the next straight.
3. Variante della Roggia
   The second chicane, a left-right flick after another braking zone. The second-best passing spot, and a place where drivers often run wide over the kerbs.
4. Lesmo 1 & 2
   Two quick right-handers in succession, faster than they look. A clean line through both is worth speed all the way down the following straight.
5. Variante Ascari
   A fast left-right-left sequence, one of the great commitment corners in motorsport. Getting it slightly wrong costs time and, at Monza, track position.
6. Curva Parabolica
   The long, opening right-hander onto the main straight, officially named Curva Alboreto since 2021. A good exit here matters more than anywhere: it sets up the slipstream run to the line and into the Rettifilo next time round.

Where the overtaking happens

Monza rewards the tow. Because the cars spend so long at full throttle, a driver who tucks into the slipstream of the car ahead picks up speed for free, then arrives at a braking zone carrying more of it. The move is to hang on, pull out at the last moment, and brake later than the car in front.

The Variante del Rettifilo, the first chicane, is where most of it happens. The main straight is long enough to line up a pass, and the chicane is slow enough that a lunge can stick. The Variante della Roggia is the other main spot, for the same reason on a shorter scale.

How far this can go was shown in the 2024 Formula 2 Feature race, when Gabriel Bortoleto won from 22nd on the grid, the very back, after crashing in qualifying. That kind of recovery is close to impossible at most circuits. At Monza, with the slipstream and two heavy braking zones, it is merely very hard.

Recent winners

Monza is one of the last rounds of the year for both series, so its results often land right as a championship is being settled.

Formula 2

Formula 3

The ladder in one weekend

Monza is a good place to watch drivers move up. The 2025 Formula 3 Feature race here was won by Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, ahead of Nikola Tsolov and Noel León. A year on, all three are racing in Formula 2, and Tsolov leads the 2026 championship.

Roman Bilinski, who won the 2025 F3 Sprint at Monza, is in F2 in 2026 as well. The junior single-seater ladder tends to show itself at circuits like this: the winners of one year are the graduates of the next.