The Imola Circuit... What we might see next year

After a two-week break, the F1 season was set to continue with a triple-header of back-to-back races.

Drivers would have raced the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in the northern Italian city of Imola, but currently, the region is seeing devastating weather and as such, the race was officially postponed by Formula 1. 

Unlike the temporary circuit we saw in Miami earlier this month, the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari has been a part of F1 since 1980. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because the circuit is named after Ferrari’s late founder Enzo Ferrari.

With a track named after the founder of Ferrari, you’d think that the Ferrari team would have some sort of edge, but Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has left his mark in Italy.

While the circuit has had its fair share of history, its return to the F1 schedule is more recent than some people may think as due to COVID-19 pandemic. 
F1 added the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola after cancelling multiple races during the 2020 season.

In 2022, it was a 1-2 Red Bull finish with Verstappen taking the top spot and Sergio Perez coming in second.

It was a nightmare race for Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz as he and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo got tangled up at turn 1 leaving Sainz in the gravel, knocking him out of the race completely.

Verstappen also won the Imola event in 2021, but a contender for this year’s race would have Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who won the race in 2020, finished 2nd in 2021 and holds the current lap record at 1:15.484 (2020).

But what about the circuit? Imola is a little shorter than the Miami Grand Prix at 4.909 km and has 19 corners that can see anticipated speeds of around 230kph. Imola only features one Drag Reduction System (DRS) zone between turn 15 and 16, making crucial takeovers a potential challenge.

Leading up to the race in 2020, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly said the circuit was “a thrill ride”. After testing his AlphaTauri AT01, he went on to add that the experience was one of the best he’d ever had in a Formula 1 car.

written by: Ryan McCoy