F1 - Imola GP

Another race weekend has come and gone at the 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola. And what a weekend it was! Both qualifying and the race were thoroughly entertaining. Let's take a look at the performance of each team this weekend.

Red Bull - Max Verstappen. I'm running out of adjectives to describe this guy's performances. Another crushing victory from Max. That first lap move on Piastri was exceptional. One of the boldest and best executed overtakes we've seen in a while. And his pace was also really good through the race, he kept ahead of the McLarens. Obviously he got lucky with the safety cars giving him a free pitstop, but this was another superb performance from Max to show why he is still fighting for the championship despite his inferior machinery. Yuki Tsunoda had an alright performance, P10 from the pitlane seems good, but he shouldn't have had to climb the field like that. He's kind of still just doing what Perez used to do - it seems that second Red Bull seat is really cursed. But it does look like the car has taken a step forward in performance.

McLaren - P2 and P3 is still a good haul of points but they will be disappointed that they couldn't get the win today. Oscar will especially be upset not just at that first corner, but also with the ease that Lando overtook him. That was the first proper wheel-to-wheel action we've really seen between the two drivers this season, and Lando looked better for it. Still, he was probably fortunate to hold on to a podium with his old tyres at the end, and he still leads the championsip. Lando will take a P2 this weekend - he gains points on Oscar and it was a decent recovery after a disappointing Quali. I wonder if they had swapped the two drivers earlier if Lando could have had the pace to catch up to Max - but I don't think so really. Still. At some point McLaren will have to be more aggressive with their strategies, especially if it's another 2 on 1 situation.

Mercedes - very disappointing weekend. Their small upgrades didn't seem to work. I felt for Kimi as he DNF'd from his home race while running in the points, and Russell could only come home for a P7. It really does seem like the Mercedes struggles in some conditions when their tyres overheat, and the pace of the car just completely falls off. Just a bad weekend all round.

Ferrari - actually not too bad of a weekend? Obviously quali was very very bad for both drivers. But the result was a decent recovery. Lewis did very well to go from 12th to finish 4th, easily his best drive of the season, and could maybe have even snatched a podium but just ran out of laps at the end. The strategy for Lewis was very good, but the safety car was also fortunate. Still a good result for him. Charles on the other hand was disappointed with his result. 11th to 6th is not terrible, but I get where he was coming from. The safety car had the opposite impact on him, and he couldn't keep the gains he made from his early pitstop. It was a frustrating weekend for him, finishing behind his teammate and a Williams. There is still a lack of pace compared to their rivals and the championship hopes for Ferrari are just slipping further and further away.

Williams - Alex Albon once again impressed with a very solid P5 result. It even looked like a potential podium was on at one point! It's kind of crazy how he said he was disappointed after back-to-back P5's! Williams are doing a really solid job once again this season, and it's still very good points. Carlos was disappointed, and he wanted the team to one-stop. He probably had the pace for a better position if the strategy and safety cars were different, but P8 is still some points. It's clear to see he's improving and getting faster every race weekend now. Double points for the team is a great weekend still - really solidifying that P5 constructors place.

Racing Bulls - the pace seemed better this weekend, and Hadjar was running P7 at one point. P9 is still points for the rookie, and he's continuing to show that he has the skills to be a very good talent in the future. Lawson was kind of anonymous this weekend (at least he didn't ruin Alonso's race like the Miami sprint)

Aston Martin - Both drivers ran well before the first safety car, and double points looked on the cards. The strategy was too conservative in my opinion, I think the race pace was decent enough to make a few overtakes through the field (certainly for Fernando anyway). The VSC kind of ruined their race as they struggled for pace on old tyres but the pace was overall way better than anything we've seen from them this season, and quali was really good. Hopefully they can continue the momentum through to the next few races and score some more points.

Sauber - Hulkenberg actually had decent pace this weekend, and was even running in the points on pace at one point. Bortoleto had no real pace again - I get the car is bad but the other rookies have at least shown glimpses.

Alpine - Gasly's early clash with Leclerc probably cost him the chance at fighting for points this weekend, but the car's pace really seems to be not that great. Franco had a very tough weekend, with plenty of mistakes in quali and the race. Hopefully he learned a lot and won't let this affect his confidence too much.

Haas - this was a really bad weekend for them. They seemed the slowest on pace this weekend, and the safety car ruined both drivers' strategy. Hopefully just a small blip for them.

Team radio of the weekend: Fernando Alonso summing up his career

Driver of the day - tough choice here. Max drove a really impressive race. Albon was also amazing to finish P5. But I'm going to be biased here and give it to my GOAT Sir Lewis Hamilton for his best performance of the season, an incredible recovery from P12 to P4, the way he cut through the field at the end was really good!

Race rating - 8/10 - it was a really enjoyable weekend. Quali was exciting with all the incidents and the race was a really strategic one - this is why we love two stop races and tyres that degrade! It always makes things interesting.

Next weekend - it's the second of the triple header in Monaco. Qualifying is always excellent there and hopefully the new mandatory two stop rule will make the race more entertaining than last year. It's a real driver centric circuit - car performance and pace is not really too relevant there (see 1992 Monaco GP) so hopefully someone can shock us and put in a good performance! Maybe even a surprise podium like Ocon in 2023, Kubica in 2010 or Perez in 2016. Or maybe we'll see a classic Monaco win like Ricciardo in 2018 or Senna in 1992! Maybe even just a crazy race like 1996 (seriously, 3 cars finished!), 1982 (the last few laps were nuts) or 1984. But it's probably just going to be normal Monaco.