Oscar Piastri is unstoppable. In Imola, the Australian takes a far from expected pole position, overcoming the final test still awaiting McLaren. Max Verstappen gives Red Bull hope, but the overheating of the new C6 tyre—a major talking point of the weekend—forces him to surrender to the Woking driver. Ferrari, on the other hand, acknowledges its limitations, struggling with the new tyre, but more importantly held back by a potential that, even when unlocked, proves insufficient.
Tyre factor
At Imola, everything revolves around the C6, Pirelli’s brand-new ultra-soft compound making its debut in a race weekend. A product designed for street circuits, it proved critical on Imola’s fast corners. Already ahead of the weekend, teams suspected the C5 might be more effective, given the soft’s tendency to degrade quickly and its instability due to deformations caused by massive lateral loads.
In qualifying, some chose to gamble on the medium compound, like the surprising Aston Martins and George Russell, who managed to take third place at the cost of a set of tyres for the race. Even McLaren was unsure, with its drivers finding their best harmony with the car on mediums in FP3, struggling to improve lap times until Q3. In the end, they chose to trust the C6, whose management proved decisive in the fight for pole.
Differences emerged immediately in the first sector, where Verstappen was untouchable, putting nearly two tenths on Oscar Piastri’s McLaren. However, the Dutchman paid the price for excessive aggression, battling rapidly rising tyre temperatures. “I started having more and more oversteer. At that point, I tried to just hold the lap together,” said Max.
The Woking car didn’t suffer from the same issue, being the fastest in the third sector with Norris, who, as in Miami, failed to exploit the new tyre in the opening section, losing a tenth and a half to his teammate. It was Piastri who capitalized on McLaren’s potential, gaining almost two tenths on Red Bull in the middle sector. The Australian, like his car, was fast yet balanced in tyre management over the lap, securing a pole that bodes well for the race.
McLaren passes the final test
The Woking team once again demonstrated its strength, emerging victorious on a day full of challenges. The MCL39 confirms its weakness over a single lap due to a front end that gives faint feedback to the drivers—a communication gap that is critical on a track with no room for error, as shown by the crashes of Tsunoda and Colapinto. Another concern ahead of the weekend was how the car would handle kerbs, with a suspension setup heavily optimized for aerodynamics, raising doubts about mechanical efficiency since testing. Yet McLaren had no trouble with Imola’s chicanes and bumps, showing agility that inspires confidence ahead of Monaco. Versatility is the MCL39’s true weapon, a car whose weaknesses are hard to identify.
Red Bull, however, came very close to once again upsetting the world champions. The Milton Keynes squad looked lost after Friday’s practice, but once again, overnight work made the difference. “I think compared to yesterday we improved a lot. The car was much more enjoyable to drive,” said Max Verstappen. The upgrades were positive for now, with the team waiting to see whether the new rear brake ducts will help tyre management during the race, where Max will play his best cards in the run to Tamburello.
Two-faced Mercedes
George Russell will start from third, though at the cost of a set of medium tyres for the race. The Briton is wrestling with a W16 that struggles over the kerbs—an issue that actually worsened from Friday to Saturday—but he remained strong over one lap. Certainly, the Silver Arrow’s excellent stability inspires confidence on a track with no margin for error and doesn’t seem to have been compromised by this weekend’s updates.
A completely different mood for Kimi Antonelli, who stared blankly while trying to explain his 13th place: “I was hoping for a much better result, especially after FP3, but nothing worked and I need to understand why.” Tyre preparation and new-tyre performance are the key areas the Italian is focusing on early this season and could explain the performance gap to his teammate. “The tyres were a bit warmer than in FP3. I don’t know if that’s the reason, but I really struggled with grip,” he said. “Today I didn’t feel the car at all, and it was hard.”
Ferrari’s downfall
The day’s biggest disappointment was the Prancing Horse. The Scuderia ended up nearly four tenths behind McLaren in Q2—too much in such a tight Formula 1 field—and paid the price. As in Miami, the Ferrari drivers once again set their best times on used tyres, struggling to extract peak grip from new ones, especially over the even narrower window of the C6 compound. “It’s been kind of a trend since the beginning of the season, and it’s something we need to look into,” said Leclerc. Hamilton echoed: “When we put the new softs on at the end, for some reason they didn’t work. They didn’t give that extra grip.”
There was much talk about the input of Loic Serra, present in Imola and a tyre expert, but the shortcomings in this area also stem from how the SF-25 works its tyres.
Yet repeated tyre issues alone aren’t enough to justify a double Q2 elimination. Team leaders have often spoken of the need to extract potential from the car, limited by a window of operation so narrow it’s “impossible to see,” in Hamilton’s words. However, listening to the drivers, it seems Ferrari may have accessed that elusive potential at Imola, only to discover it’s still not enough to fight at the front. “In general, the feeling in the car was great. It always seemed like the setup was right, the brakes were working, and everything was in place. You just can’t replicate what Max does at Tamburello,” the Englishman said. Leclerc agreed when asked about the SF-25’s problem: “It’s just performance. We can do whatever we want with the balance, but in the end, the performance isn’t enough.”
Aston Martin strikes
Smiles return at Aston Martin, fifth and eighth with Alonso and Stroll. The significant upgrade package—first tested in their own new wind tunnel—seems to have revitalized the AMR25 in slow corners. No longer a surprise, Williams remains without new developments and still running the 2024 chassis, but with Carlos Sainz finally settled in and contributing to the cause of a team that has been the season’s biggest revelation.
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