Formula 1 returns to Monza for the 2026 Italian Grand Prix from September 4–6, with full IST timings for Indian viewers. The race marks 30 years since Michael Schumacher joined Ferrari, features special tribute cars and demos, and could see Mercedes’ Italian star Andrea Kimi Antonelli chase a historic home win despite a grid penalty, testing the Tifosi’s loyalties.
Formula 1 returns to the Autodromo Nazionale Monza this weekend for Round 13 of the 2026 season, and it could be one of the biggest races in the past few years, at least as far as the Italians are concerned.
The Italian Grand Prix, scheduled from September 4 to 6, will be a special one for Ferrari this year, marking 30 years since Michael Schumacher first drove for the red team. Meanwhile, Mercedes' 20-year-old championship leader, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, walks into a grid penalty at his home race. Should he win this Grand Prix, he will be the first Italian in sixty years to lift the trophy on Italian soil.
Read on for the schedule, the IST timings, and everything you need to catch up on before lights out in Monza.
Monza will follow the traditional five-session weekend: two practice sessions on Friday, final practice and qualifying on Saturday, and the race on Sunday. India is three and a half hours ahead of Monza this weekend, so keep your afternoons and evenings free if you're watching from home.
The first practice session will start on Friday, September 4, at 12:30 PM local time in Monza, going live in India at 4:00 PM IST. The second one is scheduled for 7:30 PM IST (4:00 PM local time). Saturday, September 5 will also follow the same timings: free practice 3 at 4:00 PM IST (12:30 PM local time) and qualifying session at 7:30 PM IST (4:00 PM local time). Following this, the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, September 6, is all set for lights out at 6:30 PM IST (3:00 PM local time).
The race will cover 53 laps of the 5.793-km circuit for a total of 306.72 km, on a layout with just 11 corners, its straightaways making it the fastest permanent circuit on the calendar (the Monza Circuit is called Temple of Speed for a reason, duh).
Currently, Kimi Antonelli will come to Monza with a 59-point championship lead: 242 points to the 183 apiece held by Mercedes teammate George Russell and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, who sits third only on a countback (Russell has two wins this season to Hamilton's one). However, he has already exceeded the four power units limit that can be used in a season, and will start at the back of the grid as a penalty.
Lando Norris, having improved his performance in the second half of the year with back-to-back victories at Hungary and the Dutch GP, is fourth on the WDC standings with 159 points, just ahead of Charles Leclerc. Ferrari, despite Hamilton and Leclerc both sitting inside the top five, trails Mercedes by 87 points in the constructors' standings.
As I mentioned before, this is the thirtieth anniversary of Michael Schumacher joining the Scuderia. Ferrari, therefore, is celebrating it big: Sebastian Vettel, who had been a Ferrari driver for six years from 2015 to 2020, will take Schumacher’s F2002 out for a demonstration lap on Sunday, ahead of the race. Rubens Barrichello, who had been Schumacher’s teammate for six seasons from 2000 through 2005, will take it out on a demonstration run on Saturday. Three cars from Schumacher's Ferrari years, the 1996 F310, the title-winning 2002 F2002, and his final car, the 2006 248 F1, will be on static display.
Beyond this, Hamilton and Leclerc will race SF-26s carrying a livery inspired by the F310, the car Schumacher drove in his first season at Ferrari in 1996: red, with white and black detailing, gold-tinted wheels referencing the F310's original magnesium rims, Schumacher's personal MS logo on the cockpit, and seven stars on the nose, one for each of his world titles. Both the drivers and the wider team will wear commemorative race suits and helmets across the weekend.
Monza has always belonged to Ferrari, so much so that it’s often joked that there are two religions in Italy: one being the Catholic Church and the other being Ferrari.
This year, however, the Tifosi's devotion might be tested, because challenging the Italian team is an Italian driver from Mercedes. Antonelli is Italian, born in Bologna, less than an hour from Maranello, and his winning the race would bring Italy their first home race win since 1966. Ludovico Scarfiotti's win that year, driving for Ferrari, remains the last time an Italian has taken the Italian GP.
Despite racing for the German team, Antonelli holds a lot of influence on the Italian public. A survey of roughly 1,800 fans this year found he'd overtaken individual Ferrari drivers as the country's most popular F1 personality; La Gazzetta dello Sport and Tuttosport now mention him in the same breath as Jannik Sinner, and Disney's Italian comic Topolino has even given him his own cartoon alter ego, Kimi Paperelli. Ferrari will still get the loudest cheer they win on Sunday. But for the first time in a generation, the Tifosi won’t be the largest voice in the circuit.