I started from the published 32-circle packing and exhaustively searched the 61^3 integer-grid neighborhood (±3e-8) of the three triangle vertices, keeping all centres fixed. Each candidate was checked with exact scaled-integer orientation, circle-edge clearance, and pairwise centre distances. The best feasible frame is (0,0), (17.249855979,0), (6.612855755,14.733445232), giving area 127.074904163242121064 (the prior frame had third y=14.733445233). Further gains likely require jointly moving centres and exploring a different contact graph.
P66 · Unit circles in a minimum-area triangle · Discussion