“G’Day THAT.”
Welcome back to Dre’s Race Review as Formula 1 moved to Imola for Round 7 of the Championship, the final Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, with the venue’s contract expiring at the end of the weekend. I’ll talk more about that in a bit, but it was a race weekend dominated by tyre talk, departures, and a GT3 test driver rolling up and beating McLaren at their own game, just when Red Bull needed a shot in the arm. Let’s talk about it.
Goodbye Imola, For Now
You’ve probably already read the score on this review, this was one of the better races we’ve had at Imola since it returned to the calendar when the world stopped turning in 2020.
Back then, it filled an almighty need, the urge to put on an entertaining product in incredibly difficult, money-losing times. We bathed in the sea of nostalgia it gave us. I get why, the region is a genuinely beautiful part of the world, in a small Italian town where the people flock just a few times a year, with those warm, Italian, tifosi vibes that come with it. Good for the soul.
But we all know the sport is a business first, and we quickly got reminded why we didn’t race here for a decade and a half. Imola’s never been the best track for racing, with high-speed corners littered all over it, just the one overtaking spot into Turn 2, and a generally narrow track with the sport’s cars inevitably getting bigger. Like with most nostalgic things, the novelty wore off pretty quickly, even with the extra heartbreak of the tragic regional flooding denying it a race in 2023. Let’s not forget, one of its better modern nostalgic moments was Michael Schumacher being unable to pass Fernando Alonso in 2005. (And the horrible ITV commercial break with just a few laps to go, but ssssh.)
Vibes only get you so far in Liberty’s F1. From the start of their tenure, they’ve pushed “engineered insanity”, and wanted 25 Superbowls fitting of its calendar. Imola, being an off-the-beaten-path race that doesn’t draw elite crowds, doesn’t directly line the sport’s pockets like a self-promoted race does, and lacks the novelty of bringing racing directly to the streets like many of its modern additions, was always going to have a short shelf-life. It’s likely a new street track in Thailand is taking its place for 2026.
It’s why I leave Imola conflicted. It’s everything great and bad about what the sport was, is, and trying to be. And in a world where F1 isn’t going to cater towards the tracks with what its ontrack product is, Imola was always going to be here more for a fun time, than a long time. At least it left us with a decent final showing.
A Stunning Debut
Rubber was the subject of the weekend at Imola, given this weekend was used as a giant tester for Pirelli’s new C6 tyre, it’s softest ever compound. The impact wasn’t going to be the C6 itself, it was going to be the C5 now being the medium tyre used for the race. And even then, I’m not sure Pirelli were expecting it to be used in qualifying, given the C6’s optimum performance window was about the same as a used piece of chewing gum. George Russell was just a tenth off pole in P3 on the medium, as well as Fernando Alonso qualifying in fifth directly behind.
But when race day came, it was the same old story – The C5’s were workable in a 1-stop race, which was only extended to two stops due to timing of the two Safety Cars we had during the race. I respect that Pirelli made a gesture for the good of the “show” to try softer rubber here as a Monaco tester, but I suspect it didn’t actually make a huge difference to the race we were presented with.
At the front, Oscar Piastri narrowly pipped Franz Hermann to pole position by just 0.034 seconds, but in shocking news, he let the German GT3 driver beat him around the outside into Turn 2 on the opening lap. Now before anyone raises their pitchforks saying that he’s taken a page out of Max Verstappen’s book, it was an outstanding pass from the tin-top expert. He sent it from a car and a half back, went around the outside and made the corner clean as a whistle.
Now this may be harsh, but Oscar Piastri got caught with his pants down here and it didn’t look great for him on replay. You cannot let a fellow contender beat you around the outside from that far back. Especially when you’ve already had the blueprint you’ve applied to Max Verstappen in previous races just this season. In Saudi Arabia, you kept your wheels in and ran Max off the road. In Miami, you saw Max wasn’t going to give up the inside easily so you bullied him into an error. He was way too cautious on this one, and I fear Oscar’s words before the race and then during set himself up for his weakest race since his home round in Australia.
Oscar suggested before the race that even if he lost the lead he’d be okay due to McLaren’s 2025 ace-in-the-hole. But as the laps trickled on from the lead, it was obvious that Hermann wasn’t giving this one up easily. Red Bull had brought a pretty comprehensive floor upgrade to Miami, followed up with a new vane and mid-wing layout at the sidepods here, and there was no getting around it, in open air, Piastri couldn’t stay with Verstappen’s pace, pushing the gap up to three seconds before McLaren… went for an undercut?!
This was a bizarre tactical call from the Papaya. McLaren’s been excellent on tyre saving all season long, and then abandoning that for an undercut strategy that fed Piastri back into the back of a long DRS train behind Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull was not ideal planning at all. With Lando Norris losing 10 seconds to the lead due to taking too long to pass George Russell’s Mercedes, it opened the door for Franz to stretch the race out to a 1-stopper with the Brit only able to break even in a straight pace battle. And when Esteban Ocon’s dying Haas brought out a VSC, Red Bull were playing with house money, with a pitstop only costing 18 seconds rather than 28.
Even with a second, full Safety Car that brought the pack back together, Franz had open air with Piastri on 17-lap older Hard-tyres and it was an easy drive for the win, with Norris behind taking second via a late tyre delta pass.
This was the first time McLaren looked comfortably second best in a race all season. In any case, Red Bull can take some solace that their upgrades seem to be working with Max, and that it might be game on for the Drivers Championship with the critical, front-wing flex test change just a fortnight away in Barcelona. This could be game on. And all they had to do was hire a GT3 expert on debut, who’d have thought?
The Lightning Round
You know what I fear? I fear that if Lando Norris was the one beaten around the outside like that at Turn 1, the bottler label would have come out again. When it comes to sports fandom, once you’re typecast for a reason, it’s a very hard thing to shake. Just like Max Verstappen being the anti-christ of racecraft, even when he passes someone clean like he did today. I like Oscar a lot as a talent, but you don’t get the inexperience “pass” in Year 3, while now being treated like a title contender at the same time. You’re now being evaluated at the highest level, we need to be harsher when it comes to critiquing people. 7/10 – His team did him no favors and he handled the traffic well.
Ferrari ended up trying so hard to be different on strategy, the double Safety Car actually came back around to help them at the end, and their race pace was genuinely strong down the stretch. Two laps longer and Lewis Hamilton’s in range of Piastri. A nice recovery given the embarrassment of the double Q2 exit on Saturday.
…And the other terrifying Ferrari thought – Williams might be better than them, straight up. Alex Albon drove a brilliant race built around that one-stopper, to the point where a podium was within their grasp. But back-to-back fifth places for the Thai driver is incredibly strong. A shame it could have been more had it not been for Charles Leclerc’s over-aggressive defence.
Isack Hadjar back in the points the same weekend Yuki Tsunoda wrecked a car. Hmmm… (In Yuki’s defence, decent comeback to take a point from pit lane.)
Aston Martin may have had an upgrade that actually looked good, only to drop out of the points due to questionable strategy. Alonso begged to pit under VSC and wasn’t given the chance because the team burned through all their C5 tyres in qualifying. Welp.
Franco Colapinto, finishes 16th on his Alpine return and stuffed a car in Qualifying. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought that was a Doohan weekend. PS: I’m glad he’s called out his fans, because Argentina needs to get its shit together. Racial abuse and death threats to Yuki Tsunoda on social media for a simple middle finger in FP1 was completely unacceptable and seeing another “Canapino” moment is utterly infuriating. Keep the thuggish football behaviour out of this sport.
The Verdict – 6.5/10 (Decent): Imola’s final goodbye was a good race for me. While Franz Hermann shocked the world on debut in dominant fashion, we also had some good racing on the track with overtakes, and some good strategic warfare in there too with the Safety Cars taking us away from the conventional one-stopper. Thanks for the memories Imola. See you in Monaco.
