The Italian Grand Prix counted toward the World Manufacturers' Championship from 1925 to 1928 and toward the European Championship from 1931 to 1932 and from 1935 to 1938. It was additionally designated the European Grand Prix seven times between 1923 and 1967, when this title was an honorary designation given each year to one Grand Prix race in Europe. Four editions before the World Championship were held in places other than Monza: Montichiari (1921), Livorno (1937), Milan (1947), and Turin (1948). The event is due to take place at the Monza Circuit until at least 2031.
The first Italian Grand Prix took place on 4 September 1921 at a 10.7-mile circuit near Montichiari. However, the race is more closely associated with the course at Monza, a racing facility just outside the northern city of Milan, Italy's second largest city and Alfa Romeo's home. The circuit is located in its namesake suburban town, built in 1922 in time for that year's race, in the Parco di Monza — a public city park with a largely woodland setting where the Royal Villa of Monza is located.
The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza was completed in 1922 and was just the third permanent autodrome in the world at that time; Brooklands in England and Indianapolis in the United States were the two others. European motor racing pioneers Vincenzo Lancia and Felice Nazzaro laid the last two bricks at Monza. The circuit was 10 km long, with a flat banked section and a road circuit combined into one. It was fast and always provided excitement. The 1923 race included one of Harry Miller's rare European appearances with his single-seat "American Miller 122," driven by Count Louis Zborowski of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang fame; Zborowski was killed at the following year's Grand Prix at Monza driving a Mercedes.
The 1928 race was the first of many tragedies that befell this venue. Italians Emilio Materassi in a Talbot and Giulio Foresti in a Bugatti were battling around the fast circuit. As they came off the banking onto the left side of the pit straight at 125 mph, one of the front wheels of Materassi's overtaking Talbot touched one of the rear wheels of the Bugatti. Materassi lost control, swerved left, cleared a wide deep ditch, and ploughed into the unprotected grandstand opposite the pits, killing himself and 27 spectators and injuring another 26. It was the worst accident in motor racing history and remained so until the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Italian Grand Prix went on a three-year hiatus — though the alternative non-championship Monza Grand Prix was run in 1929 and 1930 — until the 1931 race, held in late May instead of the traditional early September, was won by Giuseppe Campari and Tazio Nuvolari sharing an Alfa Romeo. The 1931 race was something of an endurance race; it took ten hours to complete. Nuvolari won again in a shortened 1932 race, held in early June.
In 1933, with the race held again at the traditional timeframe of early September, disaster struck. Three top drivers were killed during the course of the Monza Grand Prix, a Formula Libre race held over three heats and a final in the afternoon of 10 September, after the Italian Grand Prix itself had been held in the morning, on what became known as the "Black Day of Monza." During the second heat there was a reported patch of oil on the south banking that had come from a Duesenberg driven by Count Carlo Felice Trossi. Giuseppe Campari in a Ferrari-entered Alfa Romeo and his protégé Baconin Borzacchini in a Maserati were battling ferociously and went through the south banking on the first lap, wheel to wheel. Borzacchini went through the oily patch, lost control, spun wildly, and the Maserati overturned and flipped multiple times; Borzacchini was pinned underneath. Campari swerved to avoid him, his car flew off the banking and crashed into trees next to the track; Campari broke his neck and was killed instantly, and Borzacchini died later that day in a Monza hospital.
Prior to the final, a drivers' meeting decided to clean up the oil patch. On the eighth lap, Polish aristocrat Count Stanislas Czaykowski was on the south banking when his Bugatti's engine blew up and a fuel line broke. The fuel caught fire and sprayed onto Czaykowski; blinded by smoke and flames, he flew off the banking at the same spot where Campari and Borzacchini had crashed, and burned to death. Frenchman Marcel Lehoux in a Bugatti was declared the winner of the shortened event.
Enzo Ferrari, who had been close to Campari and Borzacchini, became hardened by this tragedy. Racing historians conclude that the events of this race marked a watershed — the end of the joyful era of racing and the beginning of a harsher new age. Safety in those days was completely non-existent; spectators often stood very close to or even next to the track with no protection of any kind. What was particularly tragic about the 41-year-old Campari's death was that he had announced his retirement at the French Grand Prix two months earlier, to focus on his opera singing.
After the disastrous 1933 race, something had to be done to Monza. In 1934 a short version of the Florio Circuit (introduced in 1930 for the Monza Grand Prix) was used; this configuration was considered too slow, so from the following year the Florio circuit with five chicanes was used. These races came at a time when Mercedes and Auto Union became involved in motor racing; the German Silver Arrows won all of these races, with superstar Rudolf Caracciola winning in 1934 and in 1937, when the Italian Grand Prix was held at a street circuit in Livorno. 1938 saw a return to Monza, won by Nuvolari driving a mid-engined Auto Union; renovation works began just after the race, but in 1939 World War II broke out and the Italian Grand Prix did not return until 1947.
1947 saw the Italian Grand Prix held at a fairgrounds park in Milan's district of Portello, won by Italian Carlo Felice Trossi driving an Alfa Romeo; Italian Giovanni Bracco went off the road in his Delage and crashed into a group of spectators, killing five. This venue was never used again. 1948 saw it held in Valentino Park, a public park in Turin. The 1949 race returned to Monza, where it stayed for the next 30 years, with the configuration that had been ready before the war but never used.
Monza's banking had been built over and only the modified road circuit was used. 1949 saw Italian new-boy Alberto Ascari, son of the late 1924 Italian Grand Prix winner Antonio Ascari, win in his Ferrari; Enzo Ferrari was now building his own cars instead of running Alfa Romeos. 1950 saw the new Formula One Championship established, with the race and the first championship won by Giuseppe Farina driving a supercharged Alfa Romeo 158. Ascari won again in 1951 after the Alfas of Farina and Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio ran into engine problems, and completed his domination of the 1952 season. In 1953 Fangio won in a Maserati, although Ascari had already won the championship. In 1954, up-and-comer Stirling Moss in a Maserati passed both Fangio's Mercedes and Ascari's Ferrari; the furious pace saw the retirement of Moss and Ascari, and Fangio went on to win while Moss pushed his Maserati 250F over the line.
After the 1954 running, work began on entirely revamping the circuit. New facilities were built, a new corner — the Parabolica — was constructed right before the pits, and the new Monza banking (the sopraelevata curves) was built. This course was combined with the road course for the 1955 event, won by Fangio in the last race contested by a full-fledged Mercedes factory effort in Formula One until 2010. The 10 km circuit was now so fast that F1 cars were averaging 135+ mph per lap. 1956 saw an exciting race; with Fangio retired, the Ferrari team called for Italian Luigi Musso to hand his car over, but Musso ignored the order, so Peter Collins came in and handed his car and championship chances to Fangio, who took second and his fourth Drivers' Championship after Moss won.
1957 saw the organizers use the road circuit only, as the rough banking had caused problems; Moss won in a Vanwall, Briton Tony Brooks won in 1958, and Moss won the 1959 event in a Cooper-Climax. In 1960 the Italian organizers re-included the banking to favour the powerful front-engined Ferraris; the British teams boycotted the race citing the fragility of the banking, so American Phil Hill took victory in the last win for a front-engined Formula One car. 1961 saw another tragedy: two Ferrari drivers, Hill and German count Wolfgang von Trips, came into the race with a chance at winning the championship. Fighting for fourth, Briton Jim Clark and von Trips collided; von Trips crashed into an embankment and went flying into a crowd, killing himself and 14 spectators. Clark survived but was hounded by Italian police for months. Hill won the race and the championship by one point; the race was not stopped, allegedly to assist rescue work.
1962 saw a return to the road circuit only, and the banking was never used again for Formula One — though it still stands and was last used in 1969 for a 1000-kilometre sports car race. Briton Graham Hill won the race and the Drivers' Championship. 1963 saw an attempted use of the full circuit again, but the concrete banking was so rough that cars were being mechanically torn apart; the drivers threatened to walk off unless they raced on the road circuit only, which is what happened. Jim Clark won in a Lotus. Ferrari driver John Surtees won in 1964, and Briton Jackie Stewart won his first of 27 Grand Prix victories in 1965 driving for BRM. 1966 saw Italian Ludovico Scarfiotti win, and no other Italian has won the race since.
1967 produced the first of three close finishes on the fast Monza circuit over the next four years: Surtees, now driving for Honda, battled Australian Jack Brabham and won by two-tenths of a second. 1969 saw Stewart, Austrian Jochen Rindt, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Beltoise, and New Zealander Bruce McLaren battle to the line; Stewart came out on top, beating Rindt by eight-hundredths of a second, all four within two-tenths of a second of each other, and Stewart won his first of three championships. 1970 saw Rindt's fatal crash during qualifying at the wheel of his rear-wing-less Lotus; his car suffered brake shaft failure, and he died because his seat belts were not properly secured. Rindt became the only posthumous World Champion after Ferrari driver Jacky Ickx failed to overhaul him; Ickx's teammate Clay Regazzoni won the race, which saw 28 lead changes. 1971 saw the third close finish in four years: Briton Peter Gethin beat Swede Ronnie Peterson to the checkered flag by one-one hundredth of a second, with Cevert and Hailwood within two-tenths.
1972 saw changes to Monza after the 1971 race had been the fastest Formula One race ever at that point. A small chicane was put at the end of the pit straight and another at the Vialone curve; Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi won that race and his first Drivers' Championship at only 25. In 1973, Stewart finished fourth after a puncture, enough to win his third and final Drivers' Championship while Fittipaldi finished second. 1974 saw the Vialone chicane changed and renamed Variante Ascari, where Alberto Ascari was killed in 1955 testing a Ferrari sportscar; Peterson won and Fittipaldi finished second, now driving for McLaren. In 1975, Ferrari — regrouped under Luca di Montezemolo — reached the high point of its resurgence: Regazzoni took victory, followed by Fittipaldi and Niki Lauda, who won his first drivers' title as Ferrari won the Constructors' Championship at the same event. 1976 saw further changes with two chicanes (Variante Rettifilo) and the Variante della Roggia installed; Lauda, who had returned only six weeks after his crash at the Nürburgring, finished fourth while Peterson won. 1977 saw Italian-American Mario Andretti win in a Lotus.
The 1978 race added another page of tragedy. As the race started there was a huge, fiery multi-car pile-up on the approach to the first corner; one victim was Peterson, whose car slammed into the Armco barriers and caught fire. Briton James Hunt, with the help of Frenchman Patrick Depailler and Regazzoni, pulled him out of the burning Lotus. Peterson suffered severe leg injuries and died from embolism complications a day later. With Peterson's retirement from the race, Andretti won the Drivers' Championship. Andretti and Canadian Gilles Villeneuve jumped the start and were penalised a minute; Lauda went on to take victory in his Alfa-powered Brabham in a shortened race. 1979 saw run-off areas added; Jody Scheckter, now driving for Ferrari, won the race and the Drivers' Championship.
In 1979 it was announced that the Autodromo Dino Ferrari, also known as Imola, would host the Italian Grand Prix for 1980 while Monza underwent a major upgrade including a new pit complex. Imola's one-time running of the Italian GP was won by Brazilian Nelson Piquet after the two turbo Renaults of Jean-Pierre Jabouille and René Arnoux retired.
The Italian Grand Prix returned to Monza for 1981 and has stayed there ever since; the Imola circuit went on to host the San Marino Grand Prix from 1981 to 2006. The 1981 Italian Grand Prix was won by rising star Alain Prost, and that race saw Briton John Watson have a huge accident at the second Lesmo Curve, uninjured in his carbon-fibre McLaren. 1982 was won by Prost's teammate René Arnoux, and Prost also won the 1985 event driving a McLaren. 1988 saw a memorable win: McLaren had won every race up to the Italian Grand Prix, but Prost went out with engine problems and his teammate Ayrton Senna crashed into a backmarker with two laps to go — so Austrian Gerhard Berger in a Ferrari took victory, followed by Michele Alboreto for a Ferrari 1–2. This was particularly memorable because Enzo Ferrari had died a month before.
1989 saw Prost win after Senna's Honda engine expired, but Senna took victory the following year. 1991 saw Nigel Mansell win, with Senna second. Senna won again in 1992, and 1993 saw Damon Hill take victory after Prost's engine failed while leading. In response to the Imola tragedies in 1994, the second Lesmo curve was slowed down, and further changes were made in 1995. 1996 saw Michael Schumacher win for Ferrari, and 1999 saw championship leader Mika Häkkinen crash and break down crying behind some bushes. 2000 saw further changes that have stayed since, with the Variante Rettifilo made into a two-corner sequence; the race started tragically when a marshal, 33-year-old Paolo Gislimberti, was struck by a loose wheel from Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Jordan and later died. The decade started off with a romp of Ferrari victories, winning in 2000 and 2002–2004.
After winning the 2006 Italian Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher announced his retirement from Formula One at the end of the 2006 season; Kimi Räikkönen replaced him at Ferrari from 2007. At the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel became the youngest driver in history to win a Formula One Grand Prix, aged 21 years and 74 days, breaking the record set by Fernando Alonso at the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix; he led for the majority of the Grand Prix and crossed the line 12.5 seconds ahead of McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen in wet conditions, also becoming the youngest pole sitter and youngest podium-finisher. Vettel also won in 2011 after a spectacular pass at the Curva Grande, passing Alonso on the outside. On 18 March 2010, Bernie Ecclestone and the Monza track managers signed a deal assuring the race being held there until at least 2016.
A total of eleven Italian drivers have won the Italian Grand Prix; seven before World War II and four when it was part of the World Championship, most recently Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966. Alberto Ascari won the race three times. Both Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have won the Italian Grand Prix five times, and Nelson Piquet has won it four times. Ferrari have won their home Grand Prix 20 times, the most recent being Charles Leclerc in 2024. The 2025 Italian Grand Prix saw the fastest ever qualifying lap, set by Max Verstappen in a Red Bull car in 1:18.792 at an average speed of 264.681 km/h, as well as the fastest ever lap during a race, set by Lando Norris in a McLaren in 1:20.901 at an average speed of 257.781 km/h, and the record for the shortest race duration at 1:13:24.325.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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