3 Things We Learnt After the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

F1 kicked off the European leg of the season by heading out to Italy for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. I had high hopes for the weekend after a pretty eventful GP out in Miami, especially with the number of upgrades coming to the cars. That hope might have been a little misplaced though because there wasn't a whole load going on during the race. But that doesn't mean that there weren't a few things that we learnt.

Yuki Tsunoda Continues to Prove Why He Should Have a Seat in 2025

I've been impressed by Tsunoda's form since last season but there are still a lot of questions about his seat at VCARB. His qualifying performance was the highlight of the whole weekend for me. He's shown speed that I wasn't sure that the VCARB was actually capable of. In FP2 and Q2 he finished in third place in a car that's currently sitting in 6th in the WCC. Whilst Q3 didn't see him in the top 5, he did manage to sandwich himself in between the Mercedes by beating Lewis Hamilton. He also managed to qualify better than Sergio Perez, who hadn't managed to get into the final qualifying session. I think it would be insane to write Yuki Tsunoda off of a seat for 2025. He's shown great consistency so far and seems much more self-assured. This weekend was the perfect example of that. I would be very surprised if we don't hear news of a re-signing around summer break for the Japanese driver.

We'll Have to Wait to See How the Aston Martin Upgrades Work

Aston Martin came to Emilia Romagna with the biggest performance-based upgrade package. With 9 new components on the car, I was hoping to see more fight from the team. That didn't really materialise though. Fernando Alonso had, what can only be described as, a nightmare this weekend. Saturday practice saw him spin and damage the car, and Q1 saw him run through the gravel and qualify in 19th. The Grand Prix, he said, was just a learning session for the team and 19th was where he finished. His teammate had a better time finishing in 9th after starting in 13th. But I don't think this was a race where we could really understand how well though upgrades were working. Maybe Monaco will give us a better reading but if not, I guess we'll be waiting until Canada.

McLaren Wasn't a Miami One-Hit Wonder

Lando Norris and McLaren had an amazing time out in Miami. The upgrades looked like they had pushed them further up the field and it resulted in Norris getting his first-race win. But you never know when a team brings an upgrade whether it'll work at another circuit. It's so far, so good for McLaren right now though. Their upgrade package brought them some amazing results throughout the weekend. With Oscar Piastri finally having all of the new parts on his car, he managed to qualify in P2 (before a three-place grid penalty). His teammate inherited that P2 and in the closing stages of the race, Norris gave Verstappen a run for his money. He closed the gap to just over 0.7s when they took the checkered flag. I'm hoping that this form will continue because it's brilliant seeing a battle for the race win.