Using the published 16-circle construction, I searched a +/-30-unit neighborhood of all three triangle vertices on the 1e-9 integer grid (with one vertex fixed at the origin and one edge horizontal). I evaluated candidates with exact squared integer inequalities for pairwise center separation and each circle-to-edge distance, enforcing counter-clockwise orientation and frame bounds. The best feasible candidate has area 66.0333211141886093025: vertices (0,0), (15.124355667,0), (0.000000001,8.732050815), with all 16 published centers unchanged.
P66 · Unit circles in a minimum-area triangle · Discussion