Monza F1 25 Lap Guide: Chicanes, Kerbs and Exit Speed

Monza rewards a very specific kind of discipline. There are only a handful of real corners, the car runs with very little wing, and most of the lap is spent flat out. That means almost all of your lap time in F1 25 is decided in the braking zones for the chicanes and in how cleanly you get back to full throttle afterwards. This guide walks the lap corner by corner, with the focus on braking, kerbs and exit speed.

How a low-downforce lap feels different

With little aero load, the car feels light at high speed and moves around under braking. Two things follow from that.

First, the tyres have less grip to share between braking and turning. If you are still carrying a lot of brake pressure as you turn in to a chicane, the rear gets light and the front washes wide. Brake in a straight line, release progressively, and only then ask the car to rotate.

Second, the straights are long enough that exit speed matters far more than entry speed. A driver who brakes five metres early and gets on the throttle cleanly will usually beat a driver who dives deep and has to wait for the car to settle. When in doubt at Monza, give up the entry and protect the exit.

Turns 1 and 2: Variante del Rettifilo

You arrive here at the highest speed of the lap and slow to second gear. It is the biggest stop on the circuit and the easiest place to throw a lap away.

Braking

Use the 100m board as a starting reference and adjust in small steps once you are consistent. Hit the pedal hard at the start of the zone, because the car can take peak pressure while the speed is high, then bleed pressure off as you slow. Trying to add brake late in the zone is what locks the fronts here.

Keep the wheel still until you have shed most of the speed. Any steering input while the car is still light and fast will unsettle the rear.

Turn in and kerbs

The first apex is a right-hander. Use a moderate amount of the inside kerb, not the tall sausage kerb behind it. Riding up onto that launches the car and leaves you pointing the wrong way for the left-hander.

The second part is where the corner is won. Let the car run straight across the flat kerb on the left, then open the steering as early as you can. Your goal is to be straight and on full throttle before you cross the exit kerb on the right, so you are not fighting wheelspin all the way to Curva Grande.

Common mistakes

1. Braking later every lap to find time and then missing the first apex.
2. Turning into the right-hander while still on heavy brake pressure.
3. Taking too much of the left kerb and landing with the wheels crossed up.
4. Getting greedy with the throttle over the exit kerb and losing drive to wheelspin.

Curva Grande (Biassono)

This long right-hander is flat in the dry. The only job is to position the car. Stay near the left side out of the first chicane, drift across to clip the inside, and let the car run out to the left for the approach to the Roggia. That sets up a straight braking zone for the Roggia.

Turns 4 and 5: Variante della Roggia

The Roggia is a left-right chicane. The braking zone is shorter than Turn 1 but trickier, because the approach follows the curve of Curva Grande.

Braking

Make sure the car is straight before the heavy stop. If you are still unwinding steering when you hit the brakes, you are asking for a lock on the inside front.

Kerbs

You can use a good chunk of the inside kerb on the left-hander, but keep your wheels off the raised section. The right-hand exit kerb is usable, and running flat across it is a legitimate way to straighten the exit. The key is where you put the power down: be building throttle as you pass the second apex, not waiting until after it.

Exit speed here counts double. The run to Lesmo 1 is short, so whatever speed you carry out of the Roggia largely sets your arrival speed at the next corner.

Lesmo 1 and Lesmo 2

The two Lesmos are the closest Monza gets to proper medium-speed corners.

Lesmo 1

A short, firm brush of the brakes and a downshift, then one smooth steering input. Avoid over-slowing. Clip the apex kerb and let the car run out towards the edge of the track on exit, but keep off the outer kerb and the gravel beyond it.

Lesmo 2

This one tightens, and it catches people who carry too much speed in. Brake a little more than you think, turn in slightly later, and treat it as an exit corner. The Serraglio straight down to Ascari is long, so the throttle application out of Lesmo 2 sets your speed for the whole run.

Ascari (Turns 8, 9 and 10)

Ascari is a fast left-right-left sequence and the most rewarding part of the lap.

1. Brake in a straight line before the first left, a lighter stop than the chicanes.
2. Turn in and use the inside kerb on the first left to help the car rotate.
3. Stay committed through the right, keeping a little throttle to balance the car rather than lifting.
4. Open the steering early for the final left and use the exit kerb to get to full throttle.

Braking too deep for the first left compromises everything after it, all the way down the back straight.

Parabolica (Curva Alboreto)

The final corner is a long, opening right-hander onto the main straight. The braking zone is significant, and the corner looks like it can take more entry speed than it really can.

Braking and entry

Brake in a straight line from the left side of the track. Turn in slightly later than feels natural so you can open the steering earlier. An early turn-in commits you to a tight middle section and delays the throttle.

Exit

Past the apex, feed the throttle in progressively as you unwind the wheel, and let the car run out to the exit kerb on the left. This corner feeds the longest full-throttle stretch of the lap, across the line and all the way to Turn 1.

Reading your telemetry at Monza

Because most of the lap is flat, telemetry comparisons at Monza are unusually clear. Focus on three things.

Brake traces

Compare the shape of your brake pressure in the Rettifilo, Roggia and Parabolica. A clean trace has a sharp rise to peak and a steady taper. A trace that spikes late or shows a second bump usually means you braked too late and had to correct.

Minimum speed versus exit speed

Your minimum speed in the chicanes matters less than the speed you have 100 to 200 metres after the exit. If your minimum speed is higher than a reference lap but your speed further down the straight is lower, you are carrying too much into the corner and hurting the exit.

Throttle pick-up

Check where you return to full throttle after each corner. The fastest Monza laps tend to reach full throttle earlier out of the Rettifilo, Roggia, Lesmo 2 and Parabolica, even when they brake a touch earlier. That is exactly the kind of pattern P1, an AI race engineer that reads your telemetry live, picks up on, coaching you on the specific corners and braking points that are costing you time.

Putting the lap together

Aim for repeatable braking points, keep your wheels off the tall kerbs, and judge every corner by what happens on the straight that follows. Build the lap in order: stabilise the Turn 1 stop, clean up the Roggia exit, then refine Ascari and Parabolica. Once the braking zones stop moving around from lap to lap, the lap time follows.