5 key F1 storylines for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Formula 1 is back with this week’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, and here are the critical storylines as race week begins

After a week off, Formula 1 roars back into action with this week’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

This race kicks off the European portion of the schedule, as well as another F1 triple-header that will bring the circuit from Italy, to Monaco, and finally to Barcelona.

The last time the grid was in action Oscar Piastri secured his fourth Grand Prix win of the season, extending his lead in the F1 Drivers’ Championship race over Lando Norris to 16 points. Piastri and Norris have powered McLaren to a commanding 105-point lead over Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship.

However, there is a long way to go before titles are decided.

Here are the major storylines heading into the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

A red-hot Oscar Piastri emerges

In the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, hometown favorite Oscar Piastri found himself in the grass in the late stages of the race, ending any chance he had at becoming the first Australian driver to win their home Grand Prix.

But while his chance at winning ended, Piastri did not give up on the race itself, and one of the enduring images of that week was the McLaren driver finding a way to back onto the track before getting started again.

That moment may be the video of the season if Piastri’s current form holds.

Piastri’s win in Miami gave him four Grand Prix wins on the season, and three victories in a row, which extended his lead over teammate Lando Norris in the Drivers’ Championship race to 16 points. Max Verstappen sits third in the Drivers’ Championship standings, 32 points off the pace, while George Russell checks in fourth, 37 points behind Piastri.

Can the Australian driver keep the momentum going in Imola, or will his rivals find an answer for his current form?

Will we see big upgrades from teams this week?

Could we see several teams bring upgrade packages to Imola, in an attempt to extract additional performance from their challengers?

Imola has often been the site of performance upgrades from teams, given its location and spot on the schedule. With the grid shifting to the European portion of the calendar, kicking off that portion of the schedule with an upgrade package has been an approach used by teams in previous seasons.

This year might not be any different, with rumors swirling of upgrades coming at Aston Martin, Ferrari, and Red Bull.

What might make this year different, however, is what comes next year. With 2026 bringing a completely new set of technical regulations, teams that are likely out of title contention may take one last bite at the upgrade apple, before turning their full time and attention to the next set of regulations. Coming into the 2026 season, the chatter around the sport held that teams at the back of the grid might try and get a leg up on the competition by adjusting their focus to next season, rather than developing their 2025 challengers during the year.

That was also a major talking point in the paddock during the Miami Grand Prix, with several teams talking about focusing on 2026 in the coming weeks.

Teams at the front of the grid may still keep one eye on 2025. For example, McLaren will hope to keep ahead of the competition, while Red Bull might keep bringing upgrades to keep Max Verstappen viable in the Drivers’ Championship race.

But this may be the beginning of the end of in-season upgrades for many teams.

Familiar stomping rounds for the young drivers

Speaking with the rookie drivers ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, one theme emerged.

They could not wait to get to Imola.

For most of the first-year drivers, the opening part of the schedule brought them to some unfamiliar circuits, such as Suzuka, Shanghai, and Miami. However, this week sees drivers such as Gabriel Bortoleto, Oliver Bearman, Kimi Antonelli, Isack Hadjar, and yes, Franco Colapinto, return to circuits where they raced in F2 a season ago. In fact, during last year’s F2 race at Imola, Colapinto won the F2 Sprint race while Hadjar won the F2 Feature race.

Then the next two races — the Monaco Grand Prix and the Spanish Grand Prix — come on familiar circuits as well.

We might see a step forward from these rookies in the coming weeks.

What is happening at Alpine?

As mentioned above, Franco Colapinto makes his long-anticipated return to the grid this week, stepping in for Jack Doohan at Alpine.

But Colapinto’s return is not the only development at the Enstone-based team to unfold over the past week.

In the frenzied paddock atmosphere following the Miami Grand Prix, a message was sent from Alpine to the journalists on the ground. Due to a change in travel plans, Team Principal Oliver Oakes would not be holding his usual post-race media scrum in Alpine’s hospitality space. This came moments after Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore was spotted hurrying from the garages to the paddock inside Hard Rock Stadium.

This touched off speculation about the impending switch to Colapinto, speculation that reached a fever pitch the next morning when The Race was first to report that a decision to replace Doohan was made after the Miami Grand Prix, and an official announcement would be coming.

An announcement did follow on Tuesday, but not the one that was expected. Instead, it was news that Oakes was resigning from the team with “immediate effect.”

Many believed that it was a result of tension between Oakes and Briatore over the driver switch, which was indeed confirmed on Wednesday. Briatore and Oakes released a pair of statements on social media, stating that the resignation was not due to a disagreement between the two but rather because of personal reasons.

Then came the latest bit of shocking news: Word that Oakes’ brother William Oakes was arrested back on May 1 in England, while “ in possession of a large amount of cash.” He was charged with “transferring criminal property.”

William Oakes is a director at Hitech Grand Prix, the junior racing team founded by Oliver.

Now the team has to get back to racing, with Colapinto tapped for a five-race stint to prove he deserves a shot on the grid on a full-time basis. Will he put his best foot forward this week, as controversy swirls around the team’s former boss? Will Colapinto struggle as Doohan did before him, opening the door for a return to the grid for the Australian rookie? Or will a third driver get a shot at that seat this season, with Paul Aron waiting in the wings as well?

The future of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

One of the biggest storylines entering this week might be the race itself.

Or more accurately, its future.

This is the final season of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, under its current contract with F1. While race officials are hopeful that a contract extension will be secured, F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali — who is from the region — cast doubt on keeping the race on the calendar.

“In the coming months, we will face this choice [about keeping Imola]. From a human point of view, it will not be easy, but I have to exercise an international role that puts me in front of so many requests around the world from emerging countries that can allow F1 to grow,” Domenicali said to Radio Rai Gr Parlamento.

“It is an evaluation that I will soon have to make as a definitive choice. “Italy has always represented and will represent in the future an important part of Formula 1.

“It will be increasingly difficult to have two races in the same country because interest in Formula 1 is growing and it is a situation that we will have to face in the coming months. It is difficult for it to continue for a long time.”

F1 recently extended the contract of the Italian Grand Prix, held at Monza, through the 2031 season.

While Imola returned to the calendar during COVID, its time might be running out as F1 looks to expand its global footprint. There have been reports that a one-year extension could be reached, given that the 2023 race at Imola was canceled due to flooding in the region, but the future of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is one of the big stories to watch this week.