2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix Preview: 5 Big Talking Points Heading into the Weekend

Linus O'Howell
May 15
4 min read

Franco Colapinto’s Alpine Debut

After being signed as the team’s Reserve Driver in the offseason, it felt like it was only a matter of time, and this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix marks the proper arrival of Franco Colapinto as an Alpine Driver! Franco took the F1 world by storm at the start of his tenure as a substitute driver for Williams last year, with a brilliant P8 in Azerbaijan and another point at COTA being the highlights! At one point, it looked like Colapinto was in with a shot off competing for Red Bull in 2025, but a number of high-note incidents, particularly in Sao Paulo and Las Vegas, meant he wouldn’t be starting the season as a full-time driver! However, Alpine made the decision to spend an awful lot of money to buy Franco out of his Williams contract to become the team’s third driver, but we all knew from the start that it wasn’t going to take long for Colapinto to replace Jack Doohan, and that has come true after a quarter of the season! The weird thing about all of this is Colapinto is only guaranteed the next 5 Races in Imola, Monaco, Spain, Canada, and Austria, but if Franco Colapinto can start as strong as he did last year (and avoid big accidents), he should be in a good spot!

Let’s Talk About Yuki Tsunoda

So whilst 4 Race Weekends isn’t a lot, that’s around the average time a couple of drivers have been given in order to prove themselves this year, and I think we should talk about how Yuki Tsunoda has got on in his short time at Red Bull! Japan wasn’t the best, he was a minute off his teammate (who won the Race), but he did have to jump into the team extremely quickly so he gets a free pass there! Bahrain was actually pretty decent given Red Bull’s struggles around there, Saudi Arabia was over on the First Lap (after a collision with Pierre Gasly), and I’m not sure that Miami was good enough either. However, having said that, Yuki did do a good job to come home P6 in the Sprint (after going out in SQ1 the day prior)! Overall, Tsunoda isn’t anywhere near his teammate, as expected, but on a personal note, I don’t feel like he’s been doing particularly well! However, Yuki Tsunoda has definitely been performing better than Liam Lawson did in both Australia and China, so at least there’s an improvement on that side! With another triple header coming up, Yuki needs to start bagging some good points now!

What Are Ferrari Doing?

With this weekend taking place in Italy, it’s the first of two Home Races for Ferrari, and that means we get to focus on them (even) more than usual! So, if we’re being honest, Ferrari have been incredibly disappointing this year, they were a lot of people’s picks for the Championship, and yet they’re currently 4th and not even over the 100-point mark yet! Miami was awful, there was no pace in the car, they were slower than Williams, and the most notable moment of the weekend was Lewis Hamilton making his engineers look like fools! Of course, Lewis did manage to finish third in the Sprint, but even that isn’t where they wanted to be coming into 2025! With the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix being a Home Race, the pressure from the Tifosi is going to be even higher than usual, but if things go as badly as they have so far this season, this could turn into a Horror Show!

Can Racing Bulls Score Points At Home?

If Monza is the true home of Ferrari, then Imola is the true home of Racing Bulls! The Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari is a track that Racing Bulls know inside out, they do all their filming/testing days before the season starts here, and it’s actually proven to be a good advantage for them! In 2020, Daniil Kvyat finished just off the Podium in P4, and at least one of their drivers has scored points in every Emilia Romagna Grand Prix since it came back in that crazy 2020 Season! Right now, Racing Bulls find themselves 8th in the Constructors’ after failing to take advantage of their early season pace, but the tale of the two drivers are very contrasting as whilst Isack Hadjar has been a real revelation, Liam Lawson’s season isn’t going well on any account! Still, Imola is a track that VCARB know so well, so they’ll fancy themselves to score some points this weekend!

The First Home Grand Prix for Andrea Kimi Antonelli

Your maiden Home Grand Prix Weekend is always going to be special, and it very much feels like a big one for Andrea Kimi Antonelli! This is the first opportunity for a large majority of the Italian fanbase to cheer on their home hero, a guy that they worship as a future World Champion (and probably a multi-time Champion at that)! Kimi Antonelli has also started the season pretty well, he’s consistently inside the Top 6, and he’s impressing a lot of people that doubted whether Mercedes should’ve signed him in the first place! The only concern heading into this weekend for Antonelli is the fact he’s struggled around Imola in the past, he’s only been on the Podium once in his 7 Races here, and that’s not a great record considering he’s dominated many a junior series! I think it’s going to be very interesting to see how Andrea Kimi Antonelli gets on this weekend, but it’s safe to say that the youngster is going to have an entire Italian army behind him!