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... 😳

AZERBAIJAN GP - PRACTICE 2

1) BEST SECTOR GAP:
19km/h top speed difference between LAW and PIA: the largest difference in a FP session since... ages? 😳

🟠 McL is suffering from high drag (slowest team in S3: a straight), and PIA has a more loaded setup than NOR (-6km/h top speed). McL lost a lot on the main straight, yet was no quicker than 🔴 Ferrari in S1 and S2: Ferrari is looking good. ✅

As I predicted yesterday, 🟣 Alpine's minimum load rear wing is making them suffer in the first 2 sectors. 🚨

LAW had a slipstream on his best lap, yet still reached 349km/h without it!

2) TOP SPEEDS:

LEC is running a less loaded aero setup than HAM; likewise NOR vs PIA, ALB vs SAI etc.

Teams are still trying to understand which wing configuration is most suitable for the weekend.

AZERBAIJAN GP - QUALIFYING | VER vs SAI Telmetry:

In the quali session with most red flags (6) in F1's history, 🟡 VER edged a fantastic 🔵 SAI partly thanks to... way lower drag! 💡

With a 7km/h top speed advantage, VER gained ~0.3s on the main straight alone... even though SAI had a better exit! 🚀
SAI, on Mediums, was quicker in T5 and T15, too.

Best session sectors:
S1: VER 0.006s quicker;
S2: SAI 0.003s quicker;
S3: VER 0.080s quicker.

SAI downshifted aggressively: 8th->3rd gear in way less time than VER!

AZERBAIJAN GP - RACE | RACE PACE 📊
(Impacted by traffic!)

VER quickest (could manage his pace).
RUS was a close 2nd (+0.15s/lap) despite traffic following a bad start.

SAI and ANT bridged the gap between the top 2 and the 'others' (NOR, TSU, Ferrari and Racing Bulls).

Alpine was dead last.

Per team:
1) RBR quickest
2) Merc +0.15s/lap
3) Williams +0.38
4) McL +0.55
5) Ferrari +0.59
6) RBs +0.60
7) Haas +1.12
8) Sauber +1.20
9) Aston +1.24
10) Alpine +1.92 (‼️)

How much did LEC’s ERS issue (2kW, or 2.7hp) affect top speed? Just 0.3 km/h…

So Vasseur’s statement seems off.

Vasseur "We lacked, I think, 2kW, not much, but enough to make Charles unable to overtake".

Let’s check the numbers:
🔋 PU power: ~1000hp, or ~735kW;
🪫 With issue: ~733kW.

- Drag coefficient unchanged;
- Drag POWER grows with the CUBE of speed:;
🔋 Top speed: ~350km/h;
🪫 With issue: 350km/h*(735kW/733kW)^1/3=349.7km/h... 0.3km/h reduction.

Possible explanations:
1) He meant 20kW → ~3 km/h loss;
2) Downplayed the issue;
3) It was 2kW, but irrelevant for overtaking;
4) It was 2kW but mattered via compounding: less acceleration→farther back→weaker slipstream→even less accel. ... (unlikely).

The only certainty? The physics. 🤣