Emilia-Romagna GP preview: Alpine in chaos, Franco Colapinto returns, Lewis Hamilton’s Italian debut for Ferrari, and more
F1 is back in Europe for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday, May 18, to kickstart the second triple-header of the 2025 season.
With major leadership and driver changes at Alpine, upgrade packages up and down the grid, and Lewis Hamilton’s first race for Ferrari in Italy, the upcoming race weekend at Imola is too important to miss.
Sports News Blitz’s F1 writer Henry Eccles takes a look at the key things to keep an eye on at the 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
Alpine in chaos again
Nowadays, there is never a dull moment with Alpine, who are once again undergoing serious upheaval in the middle of the F1 season.
On Tuesday, May 6, when everyone was expecting an update on Jack Doohan’s future, Alpine made the shock announcement that Team Principal Oliver Oakes had handed in his resignation.
Speculation had rumbled on that there was a rift in the Alpine camp regarding driver policy, with Oakes wanting more time given to rookie Doohan, while Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore favoured reserve driver Franco Colapinto.
Alpine denied this in a statement, saying the reasons for Oakes’ departure were ‘not related to the team and are of a personal nature.’
More to that story started to come out on Thursday, May 8, when The Telegraph reported that Oakes’ brother, William, who co-directs Hitech GP alongside founder Oliver, was arrested at Silverstone on May 1.
The charge was ‘transferring criminal property,’ after being found ‘in possession of a large amount of cash.’
While that story ought to develop further, it has plunged Alpine into chaos once again and means the French team have now had four team principals in under five years.
Oakes had also been getting Alpine back on track since his arrival in August 2024, overseeing a strong end to the season that saw an incredible double-podium finish at the Brazil Grand Prix.
The man stepping in to replace him as Team Principal, Briatore, is no stranger to controversy himself.
17 years ago, Briatore, the then boss at Renault, was involved in one of the biggest scandals in the history of the sport - since dubbed as ‘Crashgate.’
The Italian businessman was alleged to have ordered driver Nelson Piquet Jr. to deliberately crash at the 2008 Singapore GP so that his team-mate Fernando Alonso could be put onto a race-winning strategy.
It was that incident that saw Briatore served with a lifetime ban from F1, a decision that was later overturned and has eventually led to his return to the top of the sport.
With a figure as controversial as Briatore back fully as Team Principal, all eyes will no doubt be on Alpine at Imola this weekend, and that is even without addressing their latest driver change.
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Franco Colapinto returns
Amidst all the Team Principal chaos, it has almost been lost that there has been a move in the driver market.
On Wednesday, May 7, Alpine then announced that Doohan was demoted to reserve driver in favour of Franco Colapinto for the next five races of the season.
In a statement, Briatore explained the decision:
“With the field being so closely matched this year, and with a competitive car, which the team has drastically improved in the past 12 months, we are in a position where we see the need to rotate our line-up.”
While harsh to demote a rookie so early on in the season, Doohan was not exactly pulling up trees - the Aussie’s best result in the opening six Grands Prix was P13 in China.
He also made several costly mistakes in the A525 car, most notably in a big crash during FP1 at Suzuka when he failed to close his DRS going into the first corner.
Most recently at Miami, the 22-year-old had to retire from the Grand Prix after first-lap contact with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson, seemingly the final straw for the decision-makers at Alpine.
In Colapinto, Alpine will have a seriously impressive young racer at Imola, the Argentine shone in the last nine rounds of the 2024 season after replacing Logan Sargeant at Williams.
His best weekend in F1 no doubt came at Azerbaijan, when he secured both a Q3 qualifying finish and his first points in F1, crossing the line just behind team-mate Alex Albon in P9, and ahead of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton.
The 21-year-old will hope for similar form in the Alpine, but he will have to hit the ground running with the Enstone team reportedly set to review his performance prior to the British Grand Prix in July.
Ferrari need a big weekend in front of the Tifosi
Miami was a new low this season for Ferrari, with both drivers expressing disappointment with their car’s lack of speed.
Throughout the weekend, it genuinely seemed like the Scuderia were the fifth-quickest team on pure pace - Williams finished P6 and P7 in qualifying while Charles Leclerc and Hamilton were back in P8 and P12 respectively.
In the race, both Ferrari drivers were comfortably beaten by William’s Alex Albon in P5, while Carlos Sainz caused all sorts of problems just behind the squabbling Leclerc and Hamilton in P9.
It was a particularly low point for Hamilton, as he publicly questioned the race strategy, sarcastically suggesting that his race engineer had a ‘tea break’ while the team deliberated over swapping his position with Leclerc mid-race.
It would be no surprise to anyone to hear that Hamilton is frustrated with where he is at, P7 in the Drivers’ standings having failed to finish ahead of Leclerc in any of the Grand Prix so far.
In the Constructors’ standings, Ferrari also find themselves at severe risk of falling out of the title battle, sitting in P4, a whopping 152 points behind leaders McLaren.
And yet, Hamilton still remains hopeful for the future, with minor upgrades expected to be installed on the Ferrari as the European season kicks off.
Speaking after the Miami Grand Prix, Hamilton said:
“I generally had a good day. Eighth doesn't really look like that, but I feel optimistic for the future.
“I think this car really does have performance. But something's holding us back at the moment. We've lost performance since China, and it's there, it's just we can't use it.
“Until we get a fix for that, then this is where we are. But in the meantime, we can work on all the other stuff.”
Albeit minor, and teams around them also expected to carry upgrades, Hamilton will surely be hoping that some tweaks to his SF-25 will make his first outing as a Ferrari driver in front of the Tifosi all the more special at Imola.
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European season could kick start Red Bull’s title comeback
Another team hoping to turn their season around in Italy is Red Bull.
It has been a mixed start to the season for the Milton Keynes team, their third place in the Constructors’ standings is mostly thanks to the heroics of Max Verstappen in a RB21 car proving extremely tricky to handle.
Verstappen is also keeping himself in the Drivers’ title fight, sitting in P3 with 32 points separating him and leader Oscar Piastri.
So far, McLaren have been dominant in the championship battles, and have been able to fight at the front in all conditions this season, excelling on hotter tracks such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
But with the European season underway, Red Bull are hopeful a major upgrade package - kicked off with a revised floor for Verstappen in Miami - will start to turn the tide.
With tyre management the chief difference between the two teams, The Race have reported that Red Bull have taken inspiration from McLaren’s brake configuration, believing it plays a key role in the Woking team’s thermal efficiency.
And so, since the season-opener in Australia, Red Bull have reportedly been developing new brake bells and cooling ducts, which they could introduce across the European season.
When asked on whether such upgrades could feature this weekend at Imola, Chief Engineer Paul Monaghan was coy:
“There may be. I'm not going to confirm or deny any such rumours. You'll have to wait and see what we turn up with.
"But it's not a fixed car, is it? We can bring things whenever we like and whenever we can. And if that makes us quicker and we can do it, that'll come to Imola."
Will it rain?
In recent years, weather has been an important consideration looking ahead to Imola, with the 2021 race delivering a dramatic wet weather battle between Hamilton and Verstappen, while 2023 saw the race cancelled entirely due to flooding.
On Friday, during the first two practice sessions, conditions are expected to be partly cloudy with a highest temperature of 20°C, 10-15 mph winds, and a 24% chance of precipitation, according to Weather.com
The next day, during FP3 and qualifying, skies will be generally clear with a highest temperature of 22°C, lower wind speeds of 5-10 mph, and only a 3% chance of rain.
The threat of rain rises back up again on race day to 24%, but will dry out quickly under a high temperature of 24°C, with winds again at 5-10 mph.
Humidity will also be an important factor for drivers and teams to consider, hovering around the 50% mark throughout the weekend.
Fans will be able to catch all the action in Italy on Sky Sports F1, with the race weekend taking place between May 16-18, and the Grand Prix itself set to start on Sunday at 2pm UK time.
