Feeder Series Preview: Monza

Written by Trisha Lynnette Nathan and Morgan Holiday

Credit: Formula 3 via X

Formula 2 and Formula 3 return after a lengthy break as the series near their conclusions. Usually host to the season finale, Monza will be the penultimate track for F3 as they head to Round 8 of their championship, while F2 comes to Round 10 of 14.

DIVEBOMB takes you through everything you need to know ahead of the weekend in Monza.

Formula 3

With the FIA Formula 3 Championship returning from its summer break, Monza's 'La Pista Magica' welcomes proceedings once again, though this year it does so as the penultimate round rather than the finale. Freddie Slater has taken the championship lead for the first time this season, but with the all-new Madring hosting a two-race finale in Madrid the following weekend, nothing will be settled in Italy just yet.

Slater's turnaround has been one of the stories of the season. Ugo Ugochukwu had led the standings after each of the opening six rounds, building an 18-point advantage over the TRIDENT driver following Silverstone. A torrid Spa-Francorchamps weekend, where Ugochukwu failed to score in either race, cut that gap to a single point, before Slater completed the swing in Budapest, converting pole into his maiden Formula 3 victory to move eight points clear at the top.

Slater has scored in all seven completed Feature Races so far this year, and now arrives in Italy looking to build on that consistency before the title fight moves to unfamiliar territory in Madrid.

Ugochukwu, for his part, did not wait until Monza to respond. F3 returned to action after the summer with two days of testing at the Madring, where the Campos Racing driver set the fastest overall time across the test, giving him plenty of confidence heading into the final two rounds.

Qualifying at Monza will once again be split into two groups to ease congestion on track, given the slipstream-heavy nature of the circuit. With 30 cars on the grid, a traditional single qualifying session can quickly become chaotic, with traffic disrupting flying laps down the long straights. To counter this, the field is split into two groups of 15 cars, divided by odd and even car numbers, with each given a dedicated 10-minute session to set their fastest times before the two classifications are combined to form the grids for both races.

The championship picture

Credit: Formula 3 via X

Slater leads Ugochukwu by eight points at the top of the drivers' championship, with 130 points to the American's 122, as the pair look to extend their advantage over the chasing pack before Madrid. Behind them, the fight for third remains extremely tight. Théophile Naël sits third on 75 points after winning the Budapest sprint race, with Ernesto Rivera just three points further back on 72 and Rodin Motorsport's Brando Badoer only a single point behind Rivera on 71.

The gaps stay small further down the order too, with Noah Strømsted sixth on 59 points, ahead of Hiyu Yamakoshi on 55 and Maciej Gładysz on 54.

In the teams' championship, Campos Racing continues to lead the way on 269 points, with all three of its drivers having won a race this season. TRIDENT follows in second on 196 points, while Van Amersfoort Racing sits third on 132 points, just ahead of Rodin Motorsport in fourth on 121. ART Grand Prix trails by only two points in fifth, with MP Motorsport sixth.

With 73 points still separating Campos and TRIDENT, the Italian squad will need a significant swing at Monza if it hopes to carry a realistic title challenge into the Madrid finale.

Monza itself poses an almost opposite challenge to Budapest. Where the Hungaroring rewarded downforce and track position, Monza's long straights and heavy braking zones favour straight-line speed, with teams typically running lower downforce levels than at almost any other circuit on the calendar. A new DRS zone between Turn 10 and Turn 11 has also been added for this weekend, giving drivers another chance to attack on the approach to the final corner, on top of the usual zone along the start-finish straight.

Free practice gets underway on Friday morning at 08:35 CEST (07:35 BST), with Qualifying Group A following at 14:00 CEST (13:00 BST) and Qualifying Group B at 14:20 CEST (13:20 BST). The Sprint Race takes place on Saturday at 09:30 CEST (08:30 BST), with the Feature Race rounding out the weekend on Sunday at 08:15 CEST (07:15 BST).

With the title fight moving straight on to Madrid the following week, Monza offers Slater, Ugochukwu and the chasing pack one final conventional weekend to shape the destination of the championship before the season reaches its conclusion.

Formula 2

Credit: Formula 2

After over a month of break, Formula 2 returns to the stage supporting Formula One for Round 10 of their 14 round championship. Drivers will be returning from a lengthy rest and looking to reset as they head into the second leg of the 2026 season.

Looking back to Round 9, which took place in Budapest at the end of July, Gabriele Minì took the win in the Sprint Race while Noel Leon came up from third on the grid to take victory in the Feature Race. Despite getting a leg up on title rival Nikola Tsolov, Minì is still on the back foot headed to his home track as he trails Tsolov in the standings by 20 points. Rookie driver Rafael Câmara, who finished fourth and third in the races in Budapest, sits behind the pair in the championship standings, just two points behind Minì.

This time around they’re headed to the iconic and historic Autodromo Nazionale Monza, a sweeping and beautiful 5.793 km (3.6 mi) circuit known for its high speed. Despite the challenge of the track, its also known for being a less technical circuit, leaving drivers to focus on other challenges throughout the weekend.

As the sole Italian driver on the grid as well as one of the drivers chasing the title, Minì is coming into this weekend with more to prove than anyone else on the grid, and a good weekend for him is undoubtedly crucial. After Budapest was just Tsolov’s second weekend this season where he didn’t score a podium, he’ll be looking for a comeback and a chance to extend his championship lead.

The F2 weekend starts on Friday as the drivers take to the track for Free Practice at 10:00 local time in Monza. They’ll qualify later that afternoon at 14:55 local time.

The reverse grid Sprint Race, where the driver who qualifies 10th will start from pole position, will take place on Saturday at 14:15, and Sunday morning’s Feature Race will begin at 9:45.