The F1 title battle is heating up numbers-wise ... but the action is about to get a cold bucket of water poured on it over the next three weeks.
Formula 1's latest tripleheader should be an exciting moment in a championship fight that has Oscar Piastri up on teammate Lando Norris by just 16 points (and Max Verstappen and George Russell not too far behind).
Unfortunately, three of the worst race products on the entire calendar all hit back-to-back-to-back.
Imola
We start this week at Imola, a legendary track that has never been good for actual wheel-to-wheel racing in the last few decades, and with today's gigantic cars, has only gotten worse.
The only Imola races worth much since the Italian track's return in 2020 were thanks to rainy conditions. Without rain, overtakes only can happen on the front straight, otherwise you're stuck behind the car ahead for an entire lap, even if you're much quicker.
Even last year's edition, while it had 30 overtakes, an unusually high dry race number, didn't have much worth talking about. Single digit overall overtakes has been the name of the game in Imola for a long time. Heck, the most legendary race at Imola was a defensive master class by Fernando Alonso ... but it was all aided by the track's brutal overtaking abilities.
Anyone who is fighting to keep Imola after this year (as it's rumored to get nixed) is blinded by nostalgia.
Monaco
Then we head to Monte-Carlo.
Everyone knows this race only exists for the pomp and the lore. The race itself is embarassingly bad.
Monaco overtakes are next to impossible nowadays. It's such a farce of a race that the FIA will mandate two pit stops this year to force some changes.
Personally, while I wouldn't shed a tear if they got rid of Monaco, the traditionalists whining is enough to make me want to just bear it. Plus, Monaco qualifying is fun.
Monaco being the most identifiable race for the sport, on the weekend where IndyCar and NASCAR share a date for their own legendary races, is such a tough look for F1.
F1 fans who might want to try to convert their NASCAR fan friends won't even consider asking them to get up at 9 a.m. for this. They'll never watch it again.
Monaco's poor racing should scream to the sport that cars need to get even smaller than what we might see in 2026.
Barcelona
We wrap the tripleheader in Spain for what might be the penultimate race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. It's another course that isn't inherently bad, but it's bad for 2025 F1.
Madrid is coming to the calendar in 2026, but Barcelona is still under contract next year as well, so the two are set to remain then - but afterwards, one would assume they will stick with Madrid.
The Spanish track suffers a similar issue to Imola. It's a winding track with mostly short straights and tight turns that tend to mean most overtakes are DRS assisted and usually come on the long front straight.
Fair play to the course -- we've seen some good starts here, and the turn 1-3 complex can offer some intense wheel-to-wheel action at times. But the overall races are often snoozers.
Last year, Max Verstappen won easily, and if you look back between some good battles between Russell and Norris and a few others ... not much happened, and the gaps between cars are big. Same with 2023. This year we probably need to hope for a Norris-Piastri clash a la Hamilton-Rosberg.
So with a rough set of tracks to come, let's hope for some dramatics and something to spice up the points battle, or maybe even some rain. If not, we'll see a good race again next month in Montreal.