All info you like to see before the 2025 Emilia Romagna GP starts
The seventh round of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship will take place this Sunday at Imola, with the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri will be looking for his fourth straight victory to extend his 16-point gap over teammate Lando Norris.
Norris won the season-opener in Australia, but has struggled against Piastri since, and on-track battles have proven an issue for him.
On his side, Red Bull and Max Verstappen hope to shrink the gap against McLaren at Imola and compete for the win. The Dutchman is 32 points behind Piastri in the World Drivers’ Championship and needs to change the current dynamic.
Mercedes’ George Russell is fourth in the championship, just six points behind Verstappen. Although he’s not won a race this year, Russell has four podiums in six races, a great run of consistency.
The rest of the drivers in the standings are far behind the Top 4, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc fifth with 53 points, followed by Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes – 48 points) and Lewis Hamilton (41 points for Ferrari).
McLaren leads the World Constructors’ Championship comfortably with 246 points. Mercedes is second with 141 points, followed by Red Bull with 105.
16 LECLERC Charles (mco), Scuderia Ferrari SF-24, action during the Formula 1 MSC Cruises Gran Premio del Made in Italy e Dell’Emilia-Romagne 2024, 7th round of the 2024 Formula One World Championship from May 17 to 19, 2024 on the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, in Imola, Italy – Photo DPPI
2025 Emilia Romagna GP Facts & Figures
The race will be the fifth Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The race title is the fifth different given to a GP in Italy, after the Italian, Pescara, San Marino and Tuscan Grands Prix. Italy ranks second among countries with the most different GP titles (the US held eight GPs with different names so far).
In terms of races held in the same country, it will be the 108th race in Italy (75 Italian GPs, 26 San Marino GPs, the 1957 Pescara GP, the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix, and the previous four editions of the Emilia Romagna GP). No other country has celebrated more than 80 races.
Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari
The Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, near Imola, will host a Formula 1 Grand Prix for the 32nd time, and the fifth since 2006.
The track is named after Ferrari’s founder, Enzo Ferrari, and his first son, Alfredo “Alfredino” Ferrari, who died in 1956 at 24 years of age.
The anti-clockwise track at Imola is a 4.909 km circuit with 19 corners. The course is different from the traditional layout used at Imola, as the final chicane of the past does not exist anymore and there is just a straight uniting the Rivazza corners and the Variante Tamburello.
The 31 races previously held at Imola were the 1980 Italian Grand Prix, 26 San Marino Grands Prix between 1981 and 2006, and the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix from 2020 to 2024.
The 2023 race was canceled after the devastation caused by floods in the region which caused a tragedy in the region, with many fatalities.
The driver with the most wins at Imola is Michael Schumacher with seven wins (one with Benetton and six with Ferrari).
The most remembered race at Imola is the tragic 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, in which Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger and three-time champion Ayrton Senna lost their lives after accidents.
That race caused changes in the track (the Tamburello corner was flat-out at the time) and also produced many changes regarding the safety of everyone involved in a Formula 1 event.
The last two races at Imola before falling off the calendar in 2006 were great, both with battles between Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher. Alonso won for Renault ahead of Schumacher in 2005, while Schumacher returned the favor in 2006.
IMOLA, ITALY – MAY 19: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 leads the field off the line at the start during the F1 Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari Circuit on May 19, 2024 in Imola, Italy. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202405190603 // Usage for editorial use only //
Max Verstappen has won the last three editions of the race, both with some rain during the Grand Prix. Before the Dutchman’s victories in 2021 and 2022, Lewis Hamilton had won at Imola in 2020, commanding a Mercedes 1-2.
The current lap record in a Grand Prix comes from the 2020 race at Imola, set by Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes W11 with a 1:15.484 min lap.
2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – Tyres
The dry tyres for the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix will be the C4 as P Zero White hard, C5 as P Zero Yellow Medium and C6 as P Zero Red soft.
Pirelli explained their choice with a press release: “The new C6 compound will make its race debut in Imola, as Pirelli has chosen the softest trio of compounds in its 2025 range for this weekend, with the C4 as Hard, the C5 as Medium and the C6 as Soft.
“It will be the first time that drivers will run the C6 on this season’s cars as none of them used it in the Bahrain test.
“Homologated for use at tracks that stress the tyres the least, the C6 could provide even more grip over a flying lap, especially as the Imola surface is less abrasive than average.
“It’s hard to imagine it being used for a race stint, but data gathered in Imola and then from Monaco and Montreal, will allow the Pirelli engineers to evaluate it for other Grands Prix in the second part of the season.
“Last year, the one-stop strategy proved the most competitive. 15 drivers started the race on the Medium (C4), three on the Hard (C3) and two on the Soft (C5). The harder compounds worked best, offering very consistent performance, with limited degradation, despite track temperatures above 50 °C. Those who started on the Soft had to make two stops.
“It will be interesting to see if going one step softer in terms of compounds compared to last year will have an effect. There is only one DRS zone with limited opportunities for overtaking elsewhere, added to which the pit lane is the longest on the calendar in terms of time. All these factors combine to make a one-stop the obligatory tradition at this circuit.”
The minimum starting pressures will be 24.5 psi (front) and 22.5 psi (rear).
2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – Weather Forecast
Friday, May 16th – FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Not as warm with hazy sun
Max. temperature: 20°C
Chance of rain: 1%
Saturday, May 17th – FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Hazy sunshine
Max. temperature: 21°C
Chance of rain: 5%
Sunday, May 18th – Race
Conditions: Hazy sunshine with a shower in spots in the afternoon
Max. temperature: 23°C
Chance of rain: 46%
Who will be on the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix podium?
Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // Usage for editorial use only //
We’ve been benevolent with Lando Norris in recent predictions, but the British driver seems to be in a negative trend at the moment. Mentally, it seems like he’s not comfortable with his car and the current situation.
As Piastri’s confidence seemingly grows, Norris’s might be shrinking.
Can Red Bull close the gap with Imola upgrades? For the spectacle, let us hope that Verstappen can fight for the win. Meanwhile, Italian fans would love to see a big result from Ferrari, but that might not be likely.
Actually, the best for Italian fans might come from Mercedes, with Kimi Antonelli perhaps achieving his first podium.
The prediction for the top three of the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is 1. Oscar Piastri, 2. Max Verstappen, 3. Kimi Antonelli.
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
I predict Oscar wins yet again, followed by Lando & Max.
Rain ultimately didn’t materialize in Miami, so I doubt it’ll materialize in Imola either.
Not as warm isn’t necessarily the most fitting wording for practice day because it doesn’t have any preceding references.
✅ Checkout the latest 50 F1 Fans comments.