We had already discussed this a few months ago, but at the Autodromo Internazionale di Monza, inspections are now underway to monitor and manage the noise produced by the historic racing venue, with as many as eleven authorities involved in the operational protocol. The municipal resolution is currently being approved across the individual municipalities surrounding the Royal Villa area and requires monthly reports from SIAS, the company that manages the circuit, to be submitted by the end of the month following each motorsport event. Alongside Monza, the protocol is the result of a joint effort involving Arcore, Lesmo, Biassono, Vedano al Lambro, Villasanta, the Province, the Reggia di Monza Consortium, ATS Brianza, ARPA (the Regional Environmental Protection Agency), and the circuit operator itself, SIAS.
The reference presidential decree is number 304 of 2001, which sets the maximum permitted decibel levels. A monitoring system is already active and includes four stations, “whose location was previously agreed with ARPA technicians and the municipalities, and which record noise levels around the perimeter of the racetrack,” the resolution states. It also adds: “The unique characteristics of the Monza circuit, located within a park, require an integrated approach that, in compliance with current regulations, can balance the need to guarantee the activity of the sporting facility with the livability of the surrounding areas, while also addressing the growing sensitivity regarding environmental noise by ensuring information and participation from all stakeholders involved.”
The new system, however, introduces an additional sound monitoring station. The first is located within the track itself and includes a weather station; the second is positioned at the sports field in Vedano al Lambro; the third is at the primary school on Via Martin Luther King in Biassono; the fourth is on Via Parco, also in Biassono; and now a fifth station has been added at the Gerascia area within the Monza Park.
The underlying principle is that the administrations involved consider it appropriate “to regulate mutual cooperation, according to standards of efficiency and effectiveness, within the scope of their respective procedures concerning the monitoring of environmental noise at the racetrack and, at the same time, to deepen knowledge and measure the environmental impact generated by sporting activities at the circuit, using acoustic descriptors shared also with the concessionaire, capable of quantifying the actual extent of sound pressure to which the environment and the resident population are exposed.”
Referring to the legal limits, which apply to already existing racetracks, the maximum allowed decibel levels vary depending on the time of day: 70 dB for the entire period from 9:00 to 18:30, 60 dB for the periods from 18:30 to 22:00 and from 6:00 to 9:00, and 50 dB for the nighttime slot between 22:00 and 6:00.
Reading further into the resolution, it is also specified how “motor activities other than sporting events and related technical tests must be carried out within the time slots between 9:00 and 18:30, with at least one hour of suspension within the period between 12:00 and 15:30, except in cases of special exemptions due to specific needs.”
The resolution approved by the Monza city council, identical to those that have been or will be adopted by the other authorities, also highlights that the operator, SIAS, “will commit by the end of 2026 to implementing an internal system capable of dynamically determining noise (understood as noise generated during vehicle passage in high-speed areas) and not only static measurements (as currently required by sporting regulations, which measure noise with the vehicle stationary).” It will therefore be interesting to see how this situation develops and what changes may occur at Monza’s iconic Temple of Speed.
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