‘Not Monza’ – ‘Sad’ Italian Grand Prix prediction as ‘dangerous’ situation flagged

Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad has predicted Monza, long known as the Temple of Speed, will be rendered an “extreme” version of energy management this weekend at the Italian GP.

So much so, in fact, that having driven in the simulator before this weekend, Lindblad believes it will be “not Monza” as an experience, with straight-line speeds unlikely to reach previous years’ levels.

Italian GP ‘not Monza’ under F1 2026 regulations – Lindblad

The Italian Grand Prix has long been earmarked as the weekend where the 2026 regulations would perhaps be under sharpest focus, with Monza being the fastest circuit of the season with the highest proportion of a lap spent at full throttle.

With only limited braking zones on the circuit, opportunities to recharge batteries quickly will be tough to come by and, with experience underneath him on the simulator, trialling setups ahead of the weekend, the Formula 1 rookie believes the circuit will not hold its usual characteristics this weekend.

A by-product of this, too, Lindblad believes, will be “really bad yo-yo racing” between drivers, as battery gets used at different rates in attack and defence.

Suffice to say, then, the Racing Bulls driver is not looking forward to his first Formula 1 weekend at Monza in the way he may have before.

Saying his experience on the simulator was “worse than expected”, the teenager elaborated to PlanetF1.com and other media outlets: “There’s just not much battery, so we don’t actually go slower on the straights. We don’t use any.

“It’s quite slow. It is a bit sad, and we’ll see what it’s like on track, but the way I had to drive on the sim, there’s things that we’ve already done a little bit, which have been a little bit unnatural, but you’ve kind of got away with it. Whereas here it’s extreme, and it’s not Monza.

“There’ll be no 350[kph top speeds], so if you have any bets on breaking any speed trap records, don’t, because it’s not very fast.

“I don’t think there’s going to be much speed delta because no one’s going to have any power. It’s not like on other tracks where you have power, so then it depends where you spend it. We just have no power.”

Lindblad also highlighted a potential safety issue over the weekend too, highlighting when drivers open and close fast laps in free practice and qualifying, when some approach others at speed on the track.

Drivers on slow or ‘cool’ laps often use that time to recharge as much as possible, while drivers on fast or ‘push’ laps are deploying what’s available to them.

That difference in speed could be higher than usual at Monza, Lindblad predicts, creating a potentially unwanted situation on track.

“Because of the energy limits, the penalty for using the boost is bigger than on other tracks,” he explained.

“I think we saw it a bit in Zandvoort, but it was okay because of the banking. The delta speeds when you’re starting your lap or end your lap with what we have now with this ‘Auto K’, where basically we go flat and we just run on the engine, and then 100 or 200 metres before the line, it goes. In Zandvoort, there were 50, 60kph speed deltas, you could get out of the way and let the guys through, whereas here it’s even more, and it could become a bit dangerous.

“Starting the lap won’t be easy to be have [battery] full, have the tyres ready, but even just from traffic, from safety, it’s not great. We need a better battery.”

With peak battery recharge having already been lowered for the weekend, Lindblad predicts drivers will have to go about finding lap time a different way around Monza than usual.

Where in previous years, it has been a flat-out push in qualifying, drivers will have to think differently this time around.

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However, the jury remains out until proper laps are completed this weekend.

“You could be a bit smarter,” Lindblad said. “I don’t know if everyone’s doing it, but I found a few things with the way you approach corners. You make the lap time in different ways.

“Some of it’s as basic as just lifting more, but the way you go on power, how you go on power, where you go on power, where you make the lap time versus where you spend energy, you can be quite smart.

“Whereas here, there’ll be extreme cases of that. Even with other rules, that is just weird.

“I haven’t understood it yet, so we need to drive. I’m going to go through it with the engineers later, but it was the most confusing sim session of the year.”

Max Verstappen set the outright lap record at Monza last season, his 1:18.792 for pole position having been set at an average speed of 164.46mph – the fastest lap in Formula 1 history.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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