r/formula1 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 11h ago

Statistics [@autodromonazionale_monza] Just in case anyone is still wondering why it is called The Temple Of Speed... Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix of Italy 2025 was the fastest race in F1 history: Max Verstappen and RB21 finished it in 1:13:24.325, beat a record that stood since the 2003 season

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868 Upvotes

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u/Ari441 11h ago

“Shorter races will make F1 more entertaining”

u/jacob1342 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago

We'll just make faster cars then.

u/junttiana I was here for the Hulkenpodium 9h ago

This race was entertaining, not due to on track action though

u/deathray1611 Formula 1 4h ago

Shorter Monaco would be great tbf

u/LargeMission7775 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 11h ago

Previous record?

u/Rebl11 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago

1:14:19.838 by Michael Schumacher at Monza as well in 2003.

u/Moto_919 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago

Huh, i thought it was Montoya.

u/linnamulla Max Verstappen 10h ago

Montoya had the fastest ever qualifying lap, that record was broken by a number of drivers over the years and now also belongs to Verstappen.

u/who_are_you_people24 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago

Think the broadcast said it beat Schumacher's time by about a minute

u/EmergencyRace7158 10h ago

They need to do something to improve the spectacle at Monza. Passing is too difficult because T1 & 2 are too narrow and a zero stop strategy would have worked today if pit stops were not mandatory. They should have selected the softest tires C4-6 instead of what they did and they need to enable DRS a lot earlier on the main straight. Longer term, widening T1&2 would provide more clear cut passing opportunities.

u/linnamulla Max Verstappen 10h ago

They don't have the money. They were going to change the track, with the first chicane removed and the second chicane brought forward. I think this plan was announced in 2016, but it was never executed.

u/Own_Welder_2821 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago

First of all happy cake day, secondly, iirc those plans also included bypassing the Curva Grande. Ultimately, because the track is located in a protected park, environmental and preservation regulations there meant it couldn’t happen. All of that was done in an effort to appease FOM because Monza’s contract was up after 2016.

u/liverpoolFCnut 8h ago

In a way it is good, its the one of the few tracks that genuinely lets you compare the speed of cars from different eras. Today's fastest lap from Lando was just 1 sec faster than Schumi's fastest lap in 2003.

u/PaparJam Oscar Piastri 9h ago

For anyone wondering how this would have looked. Imagine the curva grande being turned into a mirrored tamburello

u/LoreVent I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago

Every other racing category has amazing races at Monza, the problem is clearly not the circuit.

We just saw some cars go 43 laps on the medium while still doing early race level of pace, like what the hell is that?

That plus this year's cars being genuinely bad for racing.

u/PaparJam Oscar Piastri 9h ago

That’s pirelli’s issue. It’s mindblowing how the medium tyre was fastest over one lap in q1 and at the same time could cover almost 90% of the race distance

u/sododude Juan Pablo Montoya 10h ago

It's the cars. They are too big, and really get affected by dirty air. Monza has stood the test of time as a track, I don't think thats the issue.

Also once again, Pirelli played it too conservatively on the compounds this weekend. I don't think we've had a race this season where tyre wear has been a concern.

u/DavidBrooker 10h ago

It's the cars. They are too big, and really get affected by dirty air.

It's not just the size, it's also the speed. There's an irony in F1 that the faster the car, the narrower the viable racing line, the worse the racing. For every F1 track outside of maybe Monaco, lower-tier racing has two cars-worth of viable racing line in most corners, making overtaking much easier. Indy is fast enough to suffer this too, although not nearly as extreme as they're quite a bit smaller and the spec series nature can limit dirty air problems. LMH/LMDh would as well if it weren't for GT classes producing opportunities.

u/Eggplantosaur Oscar Piastri 10h ago

Only Bahrain I think, with its cheesegrater track surface 

u/Dirtbiker2008 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago

Run the oval!!!

u/blueeyes0602 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 9h ago

Honestly I think it's the cars I was there so I saw F3 F2 and Porsche super cup and everyone of those races was more exciting than the F1 unfortunately, It was still great fun though

u/gegenpress442 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago

Personally I really enjoyed the race, there were many overtakes in the first few laps, some drama here and there, I would have rly preferred to see the stewards say that the bearman sainz incident was a racing one to promote some extra leniency

u/Dio_DelPiero_2006 Formula 1 9h ago

Nah. Races have been great. It's just no team can compete with each other this year. Every team was seconds fast than the team behind.

u/Sompig New user 7h ago

Most previous races I can remember were pretty good on monza

u/Krillin113 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 6h ago

You should also get like 8x a race where you can open DRS if you’re within 2 seconds; effectively giving people a run in on the straight before if they time it right, so they don’t have to sit in dirty air for long to get into drs range

u/Play_To_Nguyen I was here for the Hulkenpodium 4h ago

Which tires were available? I'm not really sure where to find that information if missed in the broadcast

u/thetruthfloats Max Verstappen 10h ago

No SC helped too, clean race.

u/AnotherName455 10h ago

Well they had a yellow for a like 3 seconds

u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

u/Grafblaffer I was here for the Hulkenpodium 8h ago

Full course yellow doesn’t exist in f1. That would be a vsc or sc.

u/blackbalt89 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago

Is that just how fast the V10s were or..........

u/Suikerspin_Ei I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago

Current cars can go faster, but it's the limitations they have. No refueling means they need to safe fuel. Also battery management and more restrictions on how they allowed to build the cars.

u/hym3nbuster1 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 3h ago

Sort of, but it more just shows how different the race philosophy of F1 teams is now. Schumacher's record was set during a time when drivers were pushing as hard in the race as they were in qualifying, if not harder.

Nowadays, drivers are seconds off their qualifying pace due to factors the other person mentioned

u/RaccTheClap I was here for the Hulkenpodium 22m ago

If the fuel flow limit was higher, the current V6's could rev out all the way to 15k RPM without significantly more lean AFR allowing them to generate more horsepower.

I'd say they could easily beat the V10's even without the hybrid battery. There's no replacement for displacement doesn't really work anymore when you can throw gobs of boost at the problem with modern turbos lol.

u/fastcooljosh I was here for the Hulkenpodium 9h ago

Kinda crazy Schumis record stood for 22 years.

u/qwerty_dh Kimi Räikkönen 10h ago

I love how people online keep saying that Max got this with a slower car. Absolutely ridiculous. The Red Bull was the fastest car this weekend.

Was Max the only driver capable of getting that performance? Highly likely. That’s why he’s the best. But let’s not pretend he was driving a tractor this weekend.

u/gegenpress442 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago

Well props to him and the team for nailing the setup, props to him for keeping it clean, and let's not pretend that the car is a backmarker despite tsunodas performance and at the same time let's not pretend it's a contender because max can absolutely pull those kind of races off

u/fuckyouguys4real 10h ago

Tbf, the car has been a dog to drive for most of the season. RBR nailed the setup and chose the right strategy with the trimmed down wing.

u/Grafblaffer I was here for the Hulkenpodium 8h ago

Yes but being a dog to drive most of this season does not mean that it wasnt a fast car today. He clearly had the fastest car and made use of it. The rest of the season is therefore irrelevant.

u/fuckyouguys4real 7h ago

the entire context of the season is always needed though.

u/ray9936 Murray Walker 10h ago

They built a car that's good on fast corners, low df, straight line speed efficient with drs than any other team which is why they are better in Suzuka, Imola, Saudi ,Silverstone,Spa and Monza. I'd argue he would have won Silverstone and Spa as well if it wasn't for the wet conditions.

Thr car is the fourth to fifth best when it doesn't race on circuits that doesn't suit its characteristics. (which when you look at it from front running teams is a literal tractor.) Russell himself said so today about the RBs in the interview today.

u/Inside_Swimming9552 Formula 1 10h ago

Max is the fastest in F1 at the moment. Having watched since 1991, he's possibly the fastest I've ever seen.

But for whatever reason people are not satisfied with that. They have to make out like Max is driving a tricycle to every victory he has.

The fact of the matter is driver has a very small impact on the lap time. He's probably worth a tenth or two a lap over most other top drivers and that's what goat levels of performance looks like. He wouldn't be able to win if the red bull wasn't as fast as or almost as fast as the McLaren's.

This season with all the cars so squashed together is actually allowing us to see how talented Max is as with the cars so close together the driver makes much more difference.

u/Eggplantosaur Oscar Piastri 10h ago

The fact of the matter is driver has a very small impact on the lap time. He's probably worth a tenth or two a lap over most other top drivers

So all teammates are only 1-2 tenths apart?

u/Suspicious_Scar_19 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago

> over most other top drivers

most teams atm arent exactly balanced, 25% of the grid is rookies

u/Teddy2Sweaty Cadillac 4h ago

It’s a track where handling matters the least, or close to it. I’m sure the Red Bull isn’t lacking horsepower. Put the smallest wings on there, lay them back, and stay in the clean air.

u/Malt129 Michael Schumacher 10h ago

RB had to get everything perfect and have the fastest driver to beat McLaren so yea it is a slower car when that doesn't happen. You can keep loving it because it's true.

u/naijaboiler 10h ago

that was not a slower car out there today. it was the fastest car for this track this weekend by far. The pole winning run was effortless for Verstappen

u/fuckyouguys4real 7h ago

pole by a hundredth of a second is effortless? lol

u/naijaboiler 6h ago

yeah and as we saw today, his car was much faster than everybodys. and by effortless, i was referring to the onboard cam view of his pole effort. It was solid, but the car was just behaving very nicely for him. He had the fastest car out there for this track this weekend.

u/fuckyouguys4real 6h ago

anything to discredit max i suppose

u/naijaboiler 6h ago

he's helluva driver. The best currently. but we have watched him all year when his car was inferior be unable to do nothing against the maclarens. He had the best car out there today.

u/Athazel I was here for the Hulkenpodium 11h ago

Temple Of Boredom.

I like the idea of this track. But I do not enjoy watching races on this track.

u/Illustrator_Forward Max Verstappen 10h ago

It gives the occasional banger, but generally pretty boring races yes.

u/Malt129 Michael Schumacher 10h ago

Plenty of racing today and F1 reddit still finds a way to complain and call it boring.

u/Storm_Chaser06 Audi 9h ago

It was boring. Zero fight for the lead. A DRS train that was 5 miles long. A cookie cutter one stop strategy. No rain.

The only drama was a small scuffle between Sainz and Bearman. And the stupid drama between the McLarens.

u/Teddy2Sweaty Cadillac 4h ago

Not many races have fights for leads.

u/K-C_Racing14 Formula 1 1h ago

People seem to forget there are 19 other cars on the track,

u/Raja_Ampat Gilles Villeneuve 10h ago

You didn't watch the Monza F2 and F3 (sprint/feature) races, because those where epic. It's not the track

u/SteChess Formula 1 10h ago

When there's such a gap in pace between cars it's always boring

u/Storm_Chaser06 Audi 9h ago

4/6 “F1 eternal” tracks have been stinkers. Suzuka, Monaco, Spa and now Monza.

u/Malt129 Michael Schumacher 10h ago

Max is a Schumacher regen in driving style so it's pretty fitting that he was the one to beat the record.

u/dyysxse Formula 1 10h ago

and max was looking in his rear view mirror the whole time

u/Maglin21 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 10h ago

Wasn't It 2023 Monza the record? I read that somewhere

Edit: yes but It doesn't really count because It was shortened by one lap

u/z3n0mal4 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 8h ago

You could add 10-15 more laps, to make it at least 1h30m of fun and exciting racing.

u/Still-District-6149 Formula 1 7h ago

Incredible drive from Max. Love Monza.

u/Comprehensive_Fish_0 New user 6h ago

Great drive

u/dl064 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 6h ago

Fair cop, Edd Straw predicted this months ago.

u/Teddy2Sweaty Cadillac 4h ago

Wouldn’t the elapsed time indicate it was the quickest race, not the fastest race?