DUTCH GP - WINGS 🛠

- Medium-high load track;
- Load levels have reduced slightly since ‘22 as the downforce produced by the floors has increased.

Among top teams:
🟠 McL has the deepest, yes narrowest spoon (centre part of the wing emphasised).
⚫️ McL has the most cambered lower plane.

Load levels are not radically diverse.

📸 @AlbertFabrega

DUTCH GP - LONG RUNS - TOP 5 WCC Teams
(From FP1, most representative session)

🟡 MEDIUMS:
🟧 1) NOR (Quickest, moderate wear);
🟦 2) SAI +0.312s/lap;
🟧 3) PIA+0.425s/lap.

🟩 RUS/🟥 LEC were slower, but got QUICKER throughout the stint➡️Good wear, not pushing 100%.

Those on 🔴 SOFTS were off the pace.

What's YOUR prediction? 🤔

Long runs for ALL drivers (Not just those from the top 5 teams).

Notice ALO's short, but very quick run on Mediums (He finished FP1 in P2, too).

DUTCH GP - QUALIFYING
LAPTIME IMPROVEMENT VS 2024

Kudos to Sauber: over 2.5s quicker than last year! 😳
Still a long way to go.

Behind them, the improvement was similar across the field: largest for Ferrari and Aston, smallest for McL ('24 pole already, less margin for development) and Mercedes.

DUTCH GP - RACE PACE

1) 🟧 PIA Quickest (by far!);
2) 🟦 VER +0.56s/lap;
3) 🟨 HAD +0.66s/lap (deserved podium).

Both Mercedes over 1s/lap slower than PIA on average ‼️
Williams were right behind them.

NOR’s pace was the same (0.01s/lap diff) as PIA before retiring (L65).

YOUR take?🤔

Race pace up to lap 65, showing NOR’s pace as well.

DUTCH GP - TOP SPEED PER LAP

🟢 HUL reached 342km/h in Zandvoort: top speeds in Monza will be mental! 😳

He frequently had DRS + tow, averaging 338km/h on his 15 fastest values! 🚀

🔵 VER and 🟠 PIA never used DRS; still, VER’s top speeds were significantly higher due to a less loaded setup.🛠

TOP SPEEDS IN QUALI
(More appropriate to evaluate drag: DRS for everyone, almost no tows, similar deployment strategy, etc.)

SAI/HUL/VER had the best top speeds, which was also the case in the race.

The two McLarens and BEA had the worst, but the choice of loaded wings paid off.

In no other F1 track are the rear wings as skinny as in Monza! 🛠

Hulkenberg reached 363km/h in the race last year 😳

In 2019, Vettel reached 369km/h (at almost sea level!) in the low-drag, godly-engined SF90.

What’s your prediction for this year? 👀

ITALIAN GP - WING THURSDAY!

Monza rear wing philosophy:
“Minimize drag, then remove some more!” 🚀

- Some load on the upper plane, aiding braking stability and traction (DRS will reduce drag);
- Minimal load on the lower plane.

🟠 McL: interesting gap between lower and upper plane!

🔴 Ferrari/🔵 RBR: very skinny lower plane.

⚫️ Mercedes’ design is unique: compare it to Ferrari’s, for example.


📸 @AlbertFabrega

So, about the 🟠 McL (NOR) vs 🔴 Ferrari (LEC) Monza fight...

- Ferrari: +7km/h top speed;
- Mostly due to less drag (largest difference at high speed), yet straight-end deployment might be larger, too;
- LEC: more power out of Parabolica (lower initial speed, yet soon becomes quicker than NOR, even though both are full-throttle);
- NOR mostly gained T4 to T7.

Advantage for McL, but Ferrari could have a solid home race!

ITALIAN GP - QUALIFYING

And that was the fastest lap in F1’s history! 🚀
264.682km/h average speed! 😳

Verstappen beat Hamilton’s previous record (264.362km/h, in 2020) by 0.320km/h (or 0.095s).

Ground effect cars are becoming the fastest F1 cars ever on high-speed tracks, even faster than the 2020 ones!

THE FASTEST F1 LAP EVER (vs its predecessor)

⬛️ VER's more loaded upper plane vs 🟪 HAM's 2020 car made his DRS much more effective:
- Similar straight-line performance without DRS;
- Yet +8km/h top speed with DRS! 🚀

Old-gen cars still quicker in most fast corners. 🔥


Made via @JMP_software

RBR effectively ‘cut’ VER’s upper plane right before quali.

The difference in DRS effectiveness was very large despite that!

You've just watched the fastest race in F1's history! 🚀

Records broken:
- Highest average race speed: 250.706 km/h by VER (pit-stop included 🤯) !
- Highest avg. fastest lap speed: 257.781 km/h by NOR !

The Italian GP lasted just 1:13.24.325! ⏱

Yesterday, the record for the fastest F1 lap ever was broken, too (264.682 km/h avg)!

ITALIAN GP - RACE PACE

Sawing off 🟦VER's wing didn't kill his pace: he just had his first dominant 2025 win (0.27s/lap quicker than 🟧NOR)!

Teams' pace gap (s/lap, best driver)
🥇RBR;
🥈McL +0.27;
🥉Ferrari +0.46;
4️⃣Merc +0.55;
5️⃣Williams +0.88;
6️⃣Sauber +0.95;
7️⃣Haas +0.96;
8️⃣RBs +0.98;
9️⃣Aston +1.40 (ALO retired);
🔟Alpine +1.54.

VER drove excellently, but his dominant performance could not have happened without a fast car. I expected McL's high-load setup to give them some tyre-wear advantage, but I was wrong.

That performance must be track-specific, but could RBR have finally understood how to tackle some of the car's issues?

ITALIAN GP - TOP SPEED PER LAP

Hamilton reached 365km/h in the race: the highest speed ever recorded this season! 🚀
(Previously: 356km/h at Spa)

✅ It’s also the highest Monza top speed for any ground-effect car:
‘22: 360 SAI
‘23: 359 HAM
‘24: 363 HUL

ALB reached 369km/h in Las Vegas last year: we might break the 370km/h barrier there! 🤯

He reached 13040rpm in 8th gear, well over 1000rpm above the usual upshift rpm (~11700rpm).

This combination of very high temperature (due to the slipstream/hot air and high ICE friction at high rpm) and forces on the piston (due to the high ‘centrifugal’ forces) is critical: the engine can fail after just a few seconds in these conditions, as happened to GAS last year.

Notice that LEC reached 355km/h WITHOUT DRS, on L2 due to a slipstream.

Gasly’s top speed was terrible: just 345km/h with DRS and 334km/h without it.