Why Monza, F1’s “Temple of Speed”, could be slower than the Hungaroring

You cannot walk more than a few steps around the Formula 1 paddock at Monza without seeing a sign reminding you that this is the fabled “Temple of Speed”. Less so in 2026, it seems.

Conversation ahead of the Italian Grand Prix weekend has been dominated by intrigue over how the racing will pan out – and how much slower the cars will be this year. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri has revealed that in his team’s simulations, its car was hitting lower peak speeds than it was in Hungary, which has a much slower and twistier layout.

All this despite McLaren fitting its low-drag ‘H-wing’ this weekend.

The limiting factor is the ratio of straights to corners at Monza, and the nature of those corners. At a track where the drivers spend nearly 80% of the lap at full throttle, each car’s electrical reserves will deplete quickly – and the opportunities to recharge are scarce.

It is a fundamental limitation of the current formula, where nearly 50% of the power comes from the electrical system. To avoid having too much lift-and-coast or super clipping, both of which are disliked by drivers and fans alike, the FIA has cut the amount of energy which can be harvested to five megajoules per lap. But this has the side-effect of reducing top speeds because there is less energy available.  

“At a circuit like this, you’ve got a problem no matter which direction you go,” Piastri explained. “If the harvest limit was higher, we would be super clipping everywhere and probably losing 30 or 40km/h at the end of each straight. But the drop to the harvest limit, which means the super clipping is a normal-ish amount, or a reasonable amount, it’s still there.

“Obviously you then don’t have as much energy to spend on the straights, so the actual top speed is quite low. So we’ll wait and see what top speeds we get. 

“In our sim running, I think we were actually quicker on the front straight in Hungary than we were here, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it’s more that we just don’t have the energy to spend. But again, if you gave us the energy to spend, we then don’t have anywhere to harvest it, so you run into a problem no matter which way you go. 

“For me, I think this is the correct direction to go in and have a sensible amount of super clipping.”

The need to manage energy from lap to lap has been a contentious issue throughout this season. While lifting and coasting into corners to save fuel and harvest electrical energy has been a fact of life in F1 since the hybrid era began in 2014, it is a much more regular occurrence now.

Super clipping, where the drivers remain at full throttle but the electrical motor turns in negative torque to convert kinetic energy into electrical energy, is roundly disliked because of the way it slows the cars down suddenly well before traditional braking areas. This has neutered some of the most challenging corners in F1.

Differing approaches to deploying and harvesting energy has produced more overtaking this season, but much of it is unearned in the sense that it is a factor of relative battery levels rather than driver skill. It’s likely that Monza will feature more of this ‘yo-yo racing’ given its nature.

Monza

Photo by: Archivio Autodromo Nazionale Monza

This will be unpopular with many fans but the commercial rights holder continues to insist that the majority don’t care. “Overtaking is overtaking,” opined F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali earlier this year, adding in a more recent interview that “many people think a clip is something you put in your hair”.

“I think the race is going to be chaos, especially at the beginning,” said Piastri.

“It’s obviously a track that’s very, very energy-starved and a lot of different straights where you can use your energy. So, yes, I think the racing could be pretty extraordinary. 

“We’ve got a lot of track time until then, so we’ll see what kind of deployment everybody has and where it all pans out. But, yes, I’m expecting it to be pretty chaotic, exciting – pick or choose which perspective you want on that, but it’s going to be eventful one way or another.”

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– The Autosport.com Team