Monza, Lombardy · IT
The Temple of Speed. Set in a royal park near Milan, Monza is the fastest circuit on the F1 calendar. Its long straights, chicanes, and the legendary Parabolica have hosted Grand Prix racing since 1922.
Monza is built for speed above all else. Long straights separated by heavy braking zones mean cars run minimal downforce, and the circuit rewards slipstreaming and late lunges more than cornering finesse. Curva Grande looks trivial on a map and is taken flat out under serious load; the two Lesmos reward precision; Ascari is a fast left-right-left demanding total commitment; and the Parabolica, now carrying Michele Alboreto's name, is the corner that decides your run onto the main straight.
The setting is unusual for a modern circuit: it sits inside a royal park, so much of the spectator experience is under mature trees rather than in open grandstands. The Italian crowd is a large part of what people come for, and a Ferrari result turns the place into something closer to a football terrace than a motor race. The old banked oval still stands in the park, derelict and fenced, and is worth walking out to see.
The autodrome was built in 110 days and opened on 3 September 1922, combining a 5.5 km road course with a 4.5 km high-speed oval whose banked curves allowed speeds around 190 km/h. That combination made it one of the fastest venues in the world almost immediately and established the Temple of Speed reputation it still trades on.
As cars grew quicker the layout was slowed deliberately. Two chicanes arrived in 1972, at the end of the main straight and before Ascari, named the Variante del Rettifilo and the Variante Ascari. They proved insufficient and were rebuilt in 1976, with a further chicane added ahead of the Lesmos. The banked oval fell out of use and survives today as a ruin inside the park.
Check availability for November 6–8, 2026
We may earn a commission on bookings made through this link. It costs you nothing extra, and it never affects which properties are listed or how they are ordered.
View all 6 hotels near Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Browse places to stay in Milan, IT, the nearest town on the site to Autodromo Nazionale Monza.