Well if that was the last Grand Prix at Imola for the forseeable future, it didn't leave us with a sour taste in the mouth and while it wasn't a classic race it was still better than some of the parades we've had round the circuit for the last 5 years since F1 made a return there in the patched together 2020 season.

This week we take a look back at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the first of 2 Italian races this season and the start of the European races to boot. Could McLaren and in particular Oscar Piastri keep up their dominant form from the first quarter of the season, now we're not flying away as much, or with the appearance of a few upgrades (as is traditional at this time of year), would we see more than the papaya cars in the mix?

The answer was both sort of yes and sort of no as Max Verstappen spoiled the papaya party this week by completely turning around a RedBull that he wasn't overly keen on up to Saturday afternoon to pull out his most Max-like performances of the season so far. After "that move" on turn 2, there was seemingly no stopping him from running away with it. Especially when McLaren decided to let their drivers race rather than try to strategise a win!

Obviously we're as tangent heavy as always (for some reason that you'll hear) and we've ended up with Franz Ferdinand as our featured band of the week (when did this become a music pod?) And as a bonus, while he's not here this week, Dan has promised to be on more shows this year!

If you want to join in with the chat during the races (along with practice and qualifying) head over to our Discord where there’s always a great crowd of people to watch along with. And on the socials weve got our Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky & Twitter (or is it X) and Paul’s attempts at Sim Racing on our Twitch channel. And if you want to support us you can donate to our Patreon as well from as little as £/$/€ 1 per month

Enjoy