The Monza circuit in Italy is a great traditional track to drive and great fun for league racing. There are no real surprises with the setup as it’s always been known in real life and on games as a super low downforce circuit, so you run the lowest downforce on the calendar.

Therefore the front and rear wings are set the lowest of any track on the game – only Las Vegas comes close in terms of comparably low levels of downforce.

Here’s a general baseline dry race setup for Monza for a controller user:

• Wings – 5/8
• Diff – 50 On/55 Off
• Camber/Toe – -2.50/-1.00/0.02/0.16
• Suspension – 33-8-8-1-33-39
• Brakes – 100% Pressure/55% Bias
• Pressures – 24.1 Fronts/Rears 21.4

This is actually a modified setup taken from the SimRacingSetups YouTube channel setup series, just a mod for wing and suspension settings – huge credit to this guy for the useful content he provides.

As a pad user, I tend to set the rear wing two clicks higher than the front wing for better stability and handling, but in the case of Monza, I actually find putting the rear wing 3 clicks higher than the front gives me a nice balance and sweet spot for the right level of turn in to get back on the traction out of corners.

Extra Setup Info & Tips

Here’s some more details on the setup for Monza, plus some more things to bear in mind:

Wings – My sweet spot was 5 for the front wing and 8 for the rear wing, as so much of this track is just full throttle and straights. You need that straight line speed to race properly, with just a little bit of wing for the corners in sector 2. Without low wings, you’ll be a sitting duck on the straights. You can try increasing to something like 8/11 wings and testing, but I found 5/8 just had a better feel and delivered better one lap pace as well as race pace.

Qualifying – Bring the wings closer together, perhaps make them 2 clicks apart instead of 3, or even the front wing higher than the rear wing if you can handle it on a pad (I don’t like doing this). But track position is useful, but not so crucial at Monza, as overtaking is very possible in the race. Keep those wings low to allow for that – you can work through the field with strong pace and a good undercut/overcut strategy.

Intermediate Conditions – Using the dry setup will work fine, or maybe add a few clicks to the wings if you want more advantage in the wet conditions if it’s mixed forecast between Q/R.

Full Wet Conditions – Add quite a lot more wing to the dry setup if you want more pace, anything up to 10/13 or 12/15 or something for full wet weekends. But you still need to keep relatively low wings for the straights. See our own guide on converting dry setups to wet setups (higher wing, softer suspension, higher ride height, 50 Diff).

Here would be the full wet race controller setup I’d use at Monza (experiment with wings as needed):

• Wings – 10/13
• Diff – 50/55
• Camber – -2.50/-1.00/0.00/0.10
• Suspension –  28-7-7-1-40-43
• Brakes – 95 Pressure/55 Bias
• Tyres – Minimum or close to it front & rear

Other Setup Resources

These pad setups are simple and they’re just a baseline to get started with and tweak to your own preferences. They’re definitely not the outright fastest setups; they’re designed to be easy to drive consistently in a race.

If you’re wanting more detailed setup guides, with real nuanced setups for all the different cars and conditions, plus Time Trial as well as race setups, here are some resources to check out:

• F1laps.com Monza page – Another car setup forum with pages for every track, and loads of custom setups posted, both TT and race, all cars, all conditions.
• F1gamesetup.com – An even more specialized resource with custom setups, every car and every track, wet and dry weather.

Bonus Tips For Driving Round Here

Here’s some other things to take into account when racing at Monza.

Kerbs – Watch out for the kerbs at the chicane just after the end of sector 1, and the right hand Lesmo curves in S2 also at Ascari after the second DRS zone. They’ll spit you off if you ride on them, so be tidy with your cornering here. Most other kerbs are fine.

ERS/DRS/Slipstream – Extremely powerful and important on this track with all the straights. Low wings are a must to prevent cars blasting past you. Know when to sit back and follow other cars in a DRS train, which allows you to save the ERS for when you really need it. The low wings make ERS recouping easier, but still save it for overtakes and out-laps/in laps. Don’t blow it all at the start.

Clear Air – For Career/GP modes, the AI do waste a lot of time battling, so an early pit stop and undercut can be good and has worked for me in races. You can undercut a whole bunch of cars that have wasted a lot of time fighting and swapping places.