Italian Grand Prix

The 2026 Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza starts at 14:00 CEST (UTC+2) on Sunday 6 September. The circuit runs 53 laps over 306.72 km at the fastest average speed of any race on the calendar.

This is not a sprint weekend. Practice, qualifying, and the race run across the standard three-day format.

The Autodromo Nazionale Monza is the Temple of Speed. No circuit on the calendar rewards outright velocity like this one. The long straights through the Royal Park of Monza produce the highest average speeds of the entire season, and the low-downforce configurations teams bring here look visibly different from what they run anywhere else. The circuit has hosted a Grand Prix every year since the World Championship began in 1950, with the sole exception of 1980.

Monza's history is inseparable from Ferrari's. The Tifosi have witnessed some of the sport's most emotional moments here. Charles Leclerc won for Ferrari in 2019 to scenes of wild celebration. In 2020, Pierre Gasly scored a shock maiden victory for AlphaTauri after a red flag restart, one of the biggest upsets in modern F1. The old banked oval still sits alongside the modern layout, crumbling and overgrown, a reminder of the 1961 Italian Grand Prix where Wolfgang von Trips and 15 spectators lost their lives. In 2024, Charles Leclerc delivered a commanding victory from fourth on the grid, using a one-stop strategy, that sent the Tifosi into rapture.

For European fans, the 14:00 CEST start is a comfortable Sunday afternoon. UK viewers tune in at 13:00 BST. North American audiences get a morning slot at 08:00 Eastern and 05:00 Pacific. Australian fans face a 22:00 AEST start, while Asian viewers watch at 20:00 JST and 20:00 CST. Check Italy time for the exact start in your location.

Under the 2026 regulations, the active aerodynamic systems should come into their own at Monza. The new ground-effect philosophy will fundamentally change how cars interact through the Variante del Rettifilo chicane and into the braking zone at Ascari. With Lewis Hamilton now wearing red for the Scuderia, the emotional charge of this race has an entirely new dimension, and a Hamilton victory at Monza in Ferrari colors would be one of the defining moments of the season.