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.

ITALIAN GP - QUALI GAINS VS 2024

All teams were quicker this year in Monza Quali (aided by the resurfacing), but the spread was big: Sauber gained almost two seconds, Mercedes less than three tenths!

- Big gains by Aston, Haas, and Red Bull.
- McL and Ferrari improved less (were quick already last year).

2016, Baku: Valtteri Bottas reached 378km/h (235 mph), the highest speed ever recorded in any official F1 session! 🚀

All stars aligned:
✅ Longest straight in F1 (2.2km !)
✅ Last year with narrow-track (1.8m, vs current 2.0m) V6 cars ➡️ Little drag, yet powerful
✅ Most powerful engine on grid
✅ Least draggy car on grid
✅ Tow
✅ DRS

Insane!

AZERBAIJAN GP - WING THURSDAY!

🟣 Alpine's choice is radical: they installed their Monza rear wing! Must minimise drag to compensate for the weaker engine, but this will hurt them significantly in the first 2 sectors.

⚪️ Haas: most loaded wing.

🔴 Ferrari: most loaded top team.

🔵 RBR similar to 🟠 McL.

⚫️ Mercedes' unique design is hard to gauge.

📸 @AlbertFabrega

Baku is the track where McL's 'Mini-DRS' drama started:

💡McLaren has a "Mini-DRS", which acts on top of the "Flexy wing":
- Wing flex: McL > Ferrari >> RedBull.
- McL has a never-seen-before lift of the upper plane leading edge: it's as if the DRS opens partially at high speed, providing a further advantage.

The effect is measurable: McL had the highest top speed when the DRS was inactive despite being slowest when the DRS was open (Data from quali).

Is this legal? 🤔
- The flexy wing is, as it passed the FIA's load tests. A wing that flexes are 'against the spirit of the rules', but until the load tests change to avoid that such a thing is perfectly ok.
- I'm not sure about the deformation of the DRS plane: I expect Ferrari to protest that, but the outcome is hard to predict.

Photo and idea: @brakeboosted; @multiviewer

BAKU - PRACTICE 1 | TOP SPEED

347km/h in FP1 already... 😳