Round 13 | Italy

"We will take the data and learnings forward""We will take the data and learnings forward"

A difficult Italian Grand Prix weekend for our team draws to a close with both drivers forced to retire before the chequered flag.

Fernando's car required PU components to be changed after Qualifying, meaning the team broke Parc Fermé conditions. As a result, he started the race from the pit lane. Lance lined up in P18.
Lance started the race on the Soft compound tyre, with Fernando on the Hard.
A crash for Charles Leclerc at Parabolica caused an early red flag. The Ferrari driver was able to climb out of the car unaided.
The team decided to swap both drivers' tyres before the restart, with Lance taking on a set of Hards, and Fernando moving to the Softs.
Suspected car damage ended Fernando's race after 23 laps. A suspected hydraulic issue brought Lance to a stop after 26 laps.

THE LATEST FROM THE TRACK

No room for hesitation

The F1 calendar shifts and expands, but the Italian Grand Prix remains unmoved: it's the first week of September, and thus F1 must come to Monza, north of Milan, to test itself at the Temple of Speed. The leaves will be turning gold and the mighty wall of the Alps, if we're lucky, will crisply frame the first chicane. There are new pretenders to the throne, but Monza remains the fastest lap in F1 with a Grand Prix that often seems over before it begins. Lance has a podium here, Fernando two victories, but this year the team simply hopes to consolidate Fernando's excellent result in Zandvoort, gain more of an understanding of our upgraded package and build towards the future.

We also have Mari in action this weekend as Formula 2 makes its return. Our development driver has enjoyed success at La Pista Magica before – a double winner here in Eurocup and a podium in Formula 3 suggest he likes the fast straights of the Royal Park.

RACE STARTS IN:

days

hrs

mins

secs

Session Times

FP1

FP2

FP3

Quali

Race

Toggle below to highlight parts of the track.

Sectors
Turns
Straight Mode
Overtake Mode

Ascari Chicane is very difficult. It's all about the entry and braking very late. The trick is to brake late but keep momentum.

Pedro de la Rosa – Team Representative

Number of corners
11
Number of laps
53
Race distance
306.720km

NEED TO KNOW: ITALIAN GP

THE CIRCUIT

THE GRAND PRIX

THE STRATEGY

THE FACTS

THE TRAVEL GUIDE

LAST TIME OUT IN MONZA

THE CIRCUIT

Monza's nickname is well-deserved – but The Temple of Speed is a little more subtle than its reputation would have you believe. With cars set-up in a low-drag configuration featuring their characteristic ultra-skinny rear wings, the speed trap at Monza records some of the fastest end-of-straight speeds in F1… but it's often the case that speed onto the straights is the decisive factor in both attack and defence. Getting off the corners and out of the chicanes well provides an advantage all the way down the straight, which is often what wins the day.

While there are only six braking points around the circuit, they include some of the hardest braking events of the season, thanks to the combination of very high speeds and very tight chicanes. It's an arduous workout for the drivers' left foot – and stability on the brakes really matters. The track was resurfaced in 2024, smoothing out many of the bumps… but it's still a circuit where it's very easy to miss a braking point or hit a kerb the wrong way and end up in trouble.

The most interesting thing about the circuit in 2026 is how active aero influences the lap. Teams are accustomed to building ultra-low drag aerodynamic packages for this track, racing with skinny wings and limited downforce. The combination of Straight Mode and Corner Mode configurations is going to change how the lap comes together, offering more load in the corners than has previously been the case.

THE GRAND PRIX

It's surprising just how big the royal park at Monza really is. There's a lot going on, with the racetrack occupying the northwestern quadrant, but elsewhere there's an international class golf course, a working farm, an international school, several historic buildings, fine dining and lots of woodland… all of which you see trying to find the fabled (and likely fictitious) easy way out in the evening. Everyone pays a visit to see the concrete banking of the old circuit – but that's about it for the history tour, there's more than enough racing to keep everyone occupied.

While Monza doesn't have many corners, they're all action zones. The first chicane tends to see the bulk of the overtaking, but there's a class system in place: cars that are closer on performance often carry over their battles to the second chicane, with the car forced to defend into the first chicane being compromised on exit. It's heart-in-the-mouth stuff through the Curva Grande with very little space before the tight, heavy braking zone for Roggia.

The third chicane – Ascari – is different in character. It's much quicker and rarely an overtaking spot, but it's a fabulous place to see F1 cars threading the eye of a needle at high-speed: the left-right-left flick has a very narrow racing line, and anyone a fraction off that line can wind up in trouble.

Parabolica is another corner more likely to see cars kicking-up dust than jostling for position. It's a good place to get a full appreciation for how fast an F1 car can go around a corner – but really, watching from here, like the grandstands opposite the pit lane, is all about soaking up the atmosphere. Believe the hype, it is genuinely special – and you don't have to be wearing red to enjoy it.

THE STRATEGY

Monza is traditionally a one-stop race – albeit one with a wide window and interesting undercut potential. Last year's race was won with an asymmetric Medium-Hard strategy, with the first stint extended all the way out to lap 37 of the 53. The reverse strategy is also possible, and Lance attempted this last year, starting on the Hard. The hope for the Hard starters is that a mid-race Safety Car gives them a cheap stop – but we had a flag-free race last year. Lance hung it out all the way to lap 49 before making his required pitstop.

We have the same compounds as last year, and thus no particular expectation of a different sort of race. Where Monza can see more variable strategies, however, is if the tyres grain. We had this in 2024, when the race split between one-stopping Medium-Hard runners and two-stopping Medium-Hard-Hard cars. Graining hasn't really been an issue this season, and with warm temperatures forecast, the two-stop currently looks very unlikely.

THE FACTS

1 | The Italian Grand Prix is one of only two races ever-present on the Formula One World Championship calendar, since its inception in 1950. The other is the British Grand Prix.

2 | Monza has hosted more Formula One World Championship races than any other circuit. 75 of the 76 Italian Grands Prix have been held here, the odd one out being the race in 1980, which went to Imola. The official line is that safety improvements were being made here… though there may have been some politics as well.

3 | Aston Martin's first F1 appearance at Monza was in 1959, with the cars driven by Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby. Salvadori was running seventh before retiring at two-thirds distance, with Shelby eventually finishing 10th.

4 | Lance had his first front row start here, back in 2017. He also appeared on Monza's famed podium spanning out towards the start-finish straight, when finishing third in 2020.

5 | Fernando is a double-winner at Monza, taking victory in 2007 for McLaren and 2010 for Ferrari – no prizes for guessing which one was more popular.

6 | The 1965 Italian Grand Prix has the most recorded changes of leader. In a slipstreaming race, P1 changed hands 41 times.

7 | The 1971 race is probably the all-time closest finish. The first five cars over the line were covered by 0.61 seconds. Peter Gethin beat Ronnie Peterson by 0.01s. Timing was only recorded to two decimal places in ’71. The 2002 US Grand Prix had a Ferrari formation finish recorded at 0.011s.

8 | This is the home of speed records. Michael Schumacher in 2003 has the highest average race speed, completing the race at 247.586km/h; Rubens Barrichello in the same race has the highest average speed for a fastest lap at 257.321k/h, while Lewis Hamilton in 2021 did the fastest lap of a racetrack during Qualifying, at 264.362km/h.

9 | The process of making a pitstop at Monza takes proportionally longer than elsewhere due to the high speeds of the start/finish line compared with the pitlane speed limit. It is for this reason that teams elect to make as few a stops as possible at this track.

THE TRAVEL GUIDE

The Italian Grand Prix is F1's great immovable object. Since the inception of the World Championship in 1950, it's occupied the same weekend at the start of September – give or take a couple of days. While the leaves may be starting to turn in more northerly latitudes, in Monza there's very much a feeling of late summer: it's a nice time of year to wander the streets with an ice cream – or sit on a terrace with a glass of Barolo.

Look north from the pitlane at Monza and, on a clear day, the Alps loom in the distance, in several places marking the border between Italy and Switzerland – and nestled in the foothills are the deep blue glacial lakes of Como, Maggiore and Lugano. Since Roman times, the well-to-do have been coming here to escape the humidity of the plains. It's a little more accessible now, with the train from Monza taking 29 minutes to Como, at the southern tip of its eponymous lake's western leg. The end of summer is a great time to tour the villas, villages and ornamental gardens that fringe the lakes, and a variety of cruises crisscross them – though there's something to be said for hiring a speedboat and acting like James Bond on his day off.

For those who want to go a bit further north, the Bernina Red Train takes a panoramic tour over into Switzerland, reaching the highest point accessible by train in Europe, featuring spectacular views, and the sort of cliff-hanging railway engineering bravado that the Swiss use to terrify tourists. You'll need a strong coffee and a pastry in St Moritz to recover.

If your interests are a little more urban, then Monza, while a city in its own right, has become in essence a suburb of Milan. It is, of course, a sightseeing delight, with the Duomo, La Scala, da Vinci's The Last Supper and the Quadrilatero della moda and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II for those in need of a high-fashion hit. And if you really, really like cars, take on a side quest to Turin for the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile. The cars are great, but the building is fantastic.

LAST TIME OUT IN MONZA

We first contested the Italian Grand Prix in 1959, when it was the eighth of nine races (or seventh of eight if you choose to discount the Indy 500). Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby driving the DBR4 and qualifying 17th and 19th respectively. Salvadori retired with an engine failure, while running seventh, while Shelby went on to finish P10.

Our return to Monza in 2021 was the second race to use the Sprint Qualifying format. During Friday's standard Qualifying session, Seb was 11th and Lance 12th, with Lance moving up to P10 and Seb down to P12 after the 18-lap Sprint. Seb stayed where he started, but a good race for Lance, from P9 on the grid, saw him move up to P7 by the flag.

2022 was a good race for a pub quiz, with Nyck De Vries doing a great job for us with 22 laps in FP1, replacing Seb in one of our mandatory rookie slots. The Dutchman then spent the rest of the weekend in blue, making his F1 race debut with Williams, after Alexander Albon was rushed to hospital for an appendectomy. Seb and Lance qualified 11th and 12th respectively, but both went out with power unit failures.

2023 was something of a mixed bag, with Lance qualifying P20 but Fernando making it through to Q3. With little strategic variance in the race and no interruptions, there wasn't a great deal happening. Lance made it up to P16 and Fernando finished P9. 2024 year was similar: P11 and P17 on the grid for Fernando and Lance respectively, was converted in P11 and P19 on Sunday.

Last year was not a particularly lucky race for us. Fernando started eighth and was having a very feisty afternoon when he ground to a halt on lap 24, with suspension failure, shortly after running hard over the kerbs at the ultra-fast Ascari chicane. Lance started the race down in P16, and took on an alternative strategy to make up ground. Starting on the Hard tyre, he ran as high as P8, but was hanging-out for a Safety Car that never came. He finally made his mandatory pit-stop on lap 49 of the 53 and came home in last position.

UNDERCUT

An espresso with Enrico Cardile

Ahead of his home race, Chief Technical Officer Enrico Cardile talks about our biggest upgrade yet, the art of saying no to constant development, and why our 2027 F1 car will share little with its predecessor.

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Jenson's Journal

Fernando's future and living in Italy's 'City of Steel'

Jenson Button reflects on his memories of racing in Italy, including an epic battle for victory with Fernando in 2010, and offers his take on Fernando's future in the latest entry in Jenson's Journal.

READ THE FOURTH ENTRY