Can Piastri match a Senna F1 record? - What to watch out for at Imola

But this is not a normal season. While a successful set of upgrades could turn a team’s fortunes around for the coming few months, all constructors have a closer eye on 2026 when cars will be designed to a new set of regulations. Arriving with a competitive package at the start of next year could give them an advantage for years to come.

So Imola could expose the first teams to give up on 2025 as they switch most of their efforts towards 2026.

Williams has already said that it has ended wind tunnel development of its current car; perhaps an easy decision to make given its strong start to 2025. Others haven’t experienced the same level of success in 2025, and so giving up on the season after just six races carries the risk of enduring embarrassment as the year progresses.

The likes of Ferrari, Aston Martin and even Red Bull have underperformed in the first quarter of the year. Abandoning the development of their current cars so early could come with costly negative effects for the rest of the year. What they do in the upcoming European triple-header will be a good indicator of their intentions and goals for the reminder of the season.

Will Piastri make it four in a row?

Championship momentum is with Oscar Piastri on the back of his three successive race wins. He has a 16-point cushion over team-mate Lando Norris in the drivers’ standings, and a 32 point gap to third-placed Max Verstappen.

Piastri may not have been the quickest driver in at least one of those races but he has been the most consistent and least error-prone of the trio, resulting in commanding wins and making him championship favourite for the time being.

Now Piastri could achieve something that no McLaren driver has managed since the 1991 season: winning four races in a row.

Back then, it was Ayrton Senna winning the first four grands prix of the year who achieved the feat.

Piastri doesn’t have a lot of experience of Imola, having only raced in F1 there last year after the cancellation of the event in 2023. Still, he had qualified right behind Verstappen before a penalty relegated him to fifth, so there’s little doubt about his speed at the Italian track.

McLaren is very likely to be the team to beat once more. The combination of Imola’s medium-speed corners and the team’s excellent tyre management is set to make the cars strong again, so Piastri should have everything in his favour to continue his winning streak. It will mostly be up to Norris to stop that from happening.

Can Ferrari put a smile on the tifosi’s faces?

Saying that Ferrari’s 2025 season so far has been disappointing would be an understatement. One sprint win and a single podium finish is not much to write home about, given the championship hopes at the start of the season.

The prospect of a significant improvement at its first home race of the season, an hour’s drive from the Maranello factory, appears to be off the cards.

Ferrari’s season hit a new low in Miami, where its drivers finished a minute behind the race winner and were even outperformed by the Williams cars.

There were some mitigating circumstances to its struggles in the US, and it’s hard to imagine Imola could be a bigger disappointment, but without any major updates for its car, the tifosi look set to wait longer for a glimmer of hope.

The Scuderia is one of the teams facing the critical decision on when to stop developing for 2025, and the result of any upgrades it introduces in the upcoming triple-header could decide its path for the rest of the year.

The team is believed to be ready to introduce some new parts starting at Imola, but the bigger upgrade should come in Spain, where Ferrari also hopes the new technical directive — the FIA’s clampdown on flexi-wings — will help its fortunes.

For this weekend, however, Ferrari’s main hope of a strong result could be relying on the rain.

Will Colapinto make Alpine forget Doohan?

Alpine has been making the headlines since the Miami Grand Prix, and that is unlikely to change as the Imola weekend kicks off, not just because of Franco Colapinto‘s arrival as a replacement for Jack Doohan.

The sudden departure of team boss Oliver Oakes could be a bigger topic than a driver line-up change, but all eyes will still be on Colapinto as he returns to the cockpit of a Formula 1 race car.

He’s been championed by now-team principal Flavio Briatore, and comes with financial backing, easing the pressure to deliver instant results to show the ruthless switch is justified.

But, at least in principle, Colapinto’s trial is for five races which will fly by thanks to the three grands prix in consecutive weekends. Quickly finding his feet, and the form he had at Williams last year, is a necessity.

The 21-year-old doesn’t have F1 race experience at Imola, but he is a winner there both in Formula 3 and Formula 2, so adapting to the circuit shouldn’t be a big issue.

What Colapinto needs to do to impress Alpine/Briatore enough to stay in the seat all year is unknown at the moment, but a strong Imola weekend would help in making Doohan’s swap look somewhat justified.

Is this the last F1 race at Imola?

Imola’s latest spell on the Formula 1 calendar could come to an end this weekend given the demands of the schedule and the desire to further expand the calendar internationally, beyond Europe.

The Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari hosted an F1 race without interruption from 1986 to 2006, and returned to the calendar during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 as a replacement for some of the cancelled flyaway events. The 2023 race had to be abandoned due to flooding in the area.

Now Imola is facing the end of its current spell, as its contract ends after this weekend.

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, an Imola native himself, admitted earlier this year that it was hard to justify a country having two races given the interest from new venues.

Imola’s bosses haven’t given up though, and are highlighting track improvements, as well as why they expect a record crowd thanks to the addition of new grandstands.

However, with F1 keen to have a race in Africa and countries like Thailand bidding to join the calendar, Imola’s hopes that this weekend is not its final race appear dependent on securing a deal to become one of the series’ rotating events.