Formula One returned to the legendary & historic Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit at Imola to start the European leg of the 2025 season. The venue, rich in emotion and legacy, marked the start of a triple-header that will see the grid contest in some of the calendar’s most evocative destinations. The Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team arrived with a renewed sense of purpose & anticipation – eager to discover if the comprehensive upgrade package brought for the AMR25 would start to rescue their season.
Friday’s Free Practice (FP) sessions were pivotal for Aston Martin – their updates included a new floor, floor edge, for ground effect, and a new diffuser. Stroll ran the upgraded package throughout FP1 & FP2, while Alonso stuck with the previous configuration, allowing the engineers to conduct valuable cross-car evaluation. Weather conditions were ideal for consistent data gathering, with both sessions run in dry and warm conditions. Also for this race, Pirelli had introduced a new C6 compound tyre and teams were obliged to sample its performance to guide qualifying tyre choices. In FP1, Alonso had an early near-miss with Leclerc, which raised heart rates, but the Spaniard counterintuitively went P5 within the first 15 minutes in the car without the upgrades, whereas Stroll was only 8th. However, as the session went on, Stroll had clawed his way up to get ahead of Alonso, when the session was red-flagged when Bortoleto went off track, across the gravel and crashed into a panel. As there were only 2 minutes left the session didn't restart and the clock counted down. Stroll ended up P11, Alonso P14. Later in the afternoon FP2 saw Alonso again narrowly avoiding contact, this time with Colapinto, and struggling for balance early in the run. Both drivers spent considerable time in the garage for setup adjustments and during that period this session was also red flagged, when Hadjar span off track, hit the wall square on, tried to drive the car back on track but got stuck in the gravel. Although the session did restart for a few minutes it wasn’t enough for the AMs to build up much momentum and it ended with Alonso in 14th, Stroll 17th. Importantly though, the data enabled the team to validate the updated car specification and decide that Alonso’s car would also be fitted with the new updates overnight. aturday, both cars were equipped with the full upgrade package following the data validation overnight. It was cautious start to FP3 the following day, with no drivers rushing to head out. Eventually, both AMR25s did, beginning on hard tyres. Alonso once again bearing down rapidly and narrowly avoiding Leclerc who was on a slowdown lap. Despite this, he delivered a solid showing to end the session P11, with Stroll just two positions behind in P13. Confidence in the car's behaviour on longer runs was beginning to take shape ahead of qualifying.
Later that afternoon, Aston Martin executed their best Qualifying session of the season to date. And there was drama as well – about 6 minutes into the session, about a minute after Alonso had gone P1, Tsunoda had a big crash that left his Red Bull and a barrier in shattered pieces. This required the red flags and the Aston Martin Medical Car to be deployed, but the Japanese driver had already walked away from the scene. 15 minutes later the session got back underway and, on their 2nd runs, Alonso went P1 and Stroll P4 – this was getting interesting. The pair were all ready to go out for one final run when Colapinto had a heavy crash. As there was only 2 minutes of the session left it was decided to stop the session, meaning Alonso was placed P3, Stroll P4! The start of Q2 was delayed by 25 minutes, so as to rebuild the crashed barrier and for the Stewards to adjudicate whether Bearman had crossed the finish line before the red flags and lights were deployed – it was ruled that he hadn’t. After their first runs both Aston Martins were looking solid, with Alonso in P7 and Stroll in P9. The team then made a strategic choice to run the more durable medium compound tyres while others gambled on the new soft C6. Alonso and Stroll both extracted the required performance, finishing 6th & 7th and advanced to Q3 — the first time since the British Grand Prix 2024 that both drivers reached the final session. In Q3, the pair managed to put in two strong runs, particularly Stroll, who put in the better first run and went P6, with Alonso one place behind him. Then, on their final runs, Alonso was able to improve and secured P5 on the grid, with Stroll slotting into P8, delivering his strongest qualifying of the year. At the very front, Oscar Piastri gained pole position for the race, ahead of Verstappen and Russell.
Race day dawned dry, bright and clear, with Aston Martin looking to convert their strong grid positions into points. Off the start though, it was Verstappen who had the most impressive start – probably one of the best of his career. Although Piastri got away cleanly and even pulled further ahead of Verstappen, going into the first corner, Piastri braked a split second sooner and was slightly too far over to the left, which allowed Verstappen, who hadn’t braked yet, to pull up alongside and go round the outside of Piastri, which positioned Verstappen ideally for the next corner, which he claimed a car length ahead of Piastri, and off he motored, in clean air. It was a sublime overtake, worthy of a world champion. As for the Aston Martins, both cars held station through the opening phase of the race — Alonso, holding tight within a second of Norris, in P5 and Stroll, staying within a second of Albon, in P8. Concerningly though, Sainz was pressuring Alonso and Leclerc was shadowing Stroll. On lap 11, Norris overtook Russell and that allowed Alonso to close right up on Russell and pile pressure on the Mercedes driver. With his tyres degraded Russell drove into the pits for fresh rubber, freeing Alonso up to go P4. Sainz also pitted on lap 12, allowing Stroll to move up to P6. Concerned about an ‘undercut’, Alonso came in on the following lap for a fresh set of hard tyres and although his stop was only a brisk 2.6 seconds, he returned to the track in P15 behind Russell and Leclerc. Notably, flames briefly flared from Alonso’s brakes as he headed down the pitlane, hinting at the strain his AMR25 was under. Stroll stayed out one more lap, inheriting P5, before coming in for his stop. His out-lap was tougher however —he rejoined P17 after a 3.6-second stop, behind Alonso and Gasly, but he quickly dispatched the Alpine to move up to 16th.
By Lap 20, both Aston Martins were in a midfield scrap, running 15th & 16th respectively as pit cycles continued, including Colapinto, who pitted shortly after, promoting Alonso and Stroll to P14 and P15. The race took a strategic turn on lap 29 when Ocon’s Haas came to a halt trackside, triggering a Virtual Safety Car (VSC). This was to prove detrimental for Aston Martin. Cars that hadn’t stopped yet seized the opportunity to pit, gaining a near “free” pit stop. As a result, when the VSC ended on Lap 30, Alonso found himself in P8 and Stroll in P9, but vulnerable to drivers who now had fresh tyres bolted on.
Just after the halfway point, Leclerc had passed both Aston Martins, demoting Stroll to 10th and Alonso to 9th. The slide down the order continued when Russell, also on fresher rubber, reeled in Stroll and passed him on lap 35 and on the next lap, he dispatched Alonso as well. Over the next 8 laps it was the turn of Hulkenberg first, then Sainz and finally Tsunoda to all overtake Stroll, and then Alonso. With 20 laps remaining, Aston Martin’s early promise had evaporated, with Alonso running well out of the points, in 13th, Stroll 14th. Moments later, on lap 46, another twist in the race materialised, when Antonelli pulled off the track and had to retire his Mercedes, triggering a second VSC that quickly escalated into a full Safety Car. Aston Martin opted to pit both cars and put on used medium tyres, offering them a chance to claw back positions in a tightly bunched field. Alonso rejoined in P14, Stroll in P15. The race resumed with 10 laps to go and Alonso wasted no time to hunt down his rivals. He passed Lawson first, then Gasly and launched an aggressive charge at Hulkenberg, whom he also overtook. With 4 laps to go Alonso was now in P11 with Tsunoda next in his sights—just one second ahead. Alonso reeled in the RB driver and got the gap down to 0.18 of a second – surely Alonso was going to rescue a point? But whether due to a mistake or a forceful block, the gap suddenly ballooned to eight-tenths—killing Alonso’s momentum. He ultimately finished P11, one place shy of the points. Stroll, unable to make similar progress in the closing laps, came home 15th — a frustrating result considering the promising early pace. The race was won by Verstappen, with Norris 2nd & Piastri in 3rd.
Aston Martin lost more positions during the race than any other team—clear evidence of how the early strategy unravelled after the first VSC period. Yet the upgraded AMR25 showed flashes of competitiveness, especially in Alonso’s late-race and appeared to offer better balance, but luck and timing worked against the team once more. Team Principal Andy Cowell acknowledged the weekend's mixed emotions. While the race result was not what the grid positions suggested possible, the performance through Qualifying and the early laps underlined the progress made with the AMR25’s development. Alonso was pragmatic in his post-race comments: "The car was very strong today and I was having a good race until the Virtual Safety Car turned our race upside down. I think without this VSC we could have been fighting for P6 or P7 and scored points on merit. We overtook three cars in nine laps — we just ran out of time." Stroll echoed the sentiment: "Without the Virtual Safety Car, we might have been able to finish in the points. The car felt okay early on, but the timing of that caution period hurt our race."
Despite finishing outside the points, the weekend was a step forward. The upgrades showed measurable gains, particularly in single-lap performance. With Monaco just around the corner (almost literally) Aston Martin will aim to build on this foundation and deliver results that reflect their true pace.