Formula One Vault

PRIXVIEW – Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

Round seven of the 2024 season sees Imola return to its traditional European opener for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. Imola returned to the calendar following a fifteen-year hiatus in 2020 due to the pandemic before securing a permanent spot on the calendar following the pandemic, but was cancelled due to flooding last year.

Originally the San Marino Grand Prix between 1981 and 2006, Imola has a special place because of the great races we have seen over the years. Imola is an old-school circuit which requires risk with rewards, there is no modern tarmac runoff on this narrow old-school circuit.

The Imola circuit remains one driver’s love and is one of the few circuits which is designed to run anti-clockwise. This places extra pressure on the drivers’ necks and bodies because most circuits are clockwise, it speeds and downforce. One of the most feared corners and seen of Senna’s death in 1994 is Tamburello, with Roland Ratzenberger also being killed in qualifying.

This weekend marks the thirty anniversary of the events of 1994, a weekend one said, “Everything that could go wrong went wrong that weekend” and the “blackest day in the hundred-year history of Grand Prix racing”, though the actual anniversary was 30^th April and 1^st May 1994.

Events at Imola in 1994 would shape modern F1 as BBC commentator Mark Hughes remarked ‘Everything that could go wrong went wrong that weekend.’ In Friday’s Q1 Jordan’s Rubens Barichello crashed heavily, himself into the barrier and was knocked unconscious by an impact measured at 95g, but escaped a sprained wrist and broken nose.

Saturday’s qualifying session saw Ratzenberger killed after a front wing failure, the wing broke off going under the car and that forced the front wheel to penetrate the cockpit. The Austrian suffered several fatal injuries. Senna took pole, despite sitting out the remained of the session.

On the second start, Senna led away, then on lap seven the Brazilians car went off at Tamburello and he crashed at high speed and was killed instantly. Schumacher’s first win at Imola palled off as just a footnote in history as the death of Senna. The second time in the sports history that two drivers have been killed

Until it was changed to a chicane it was a to a left-right-left chicane. Imola is still a circuit which is mainly based on the permeant circuit built in the early 1950s before the circuit was built as a test track for the region’s car and motorcycle manufacturers. The first Grand Prix, a non-championship race took place in 1963 won by  Jim Clark for Lotus. A further non-championship event took place at Imola in 1979, which was won by Niki Lauda for Brabham-Alfa Romeo.

Officially called the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari to honour the memory of Enzo Ferrari, who died in 1988. It remains known by its former name Imola the city the circuit is in, the circuit is a high speed and one where overtaking can be difficult as proved by Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso in 2005-06, who got stuck behind Alonso in 2005 allowing the Spaniard to win the race, the following season it was  Schumacher ahead of Alonso with the Ferrari winning for the penultimate time in Italy.

Imola is a unique addition to the calendar in recent times, mixing the heritage of the sport, the challenge of an old-school circuit without massive tarmac runoff areas and gravel. This means that the margin for error is tight and there is always the risk of safety cars and red flags during the race and qualifying.

The circuit is anti-clockwise circuit is certainly fast, with an old-school feel as the drivers put it on the line in iconic corners like the Acque Minerali and Piratella. Scene of one of the most memorable incidents since the sport returned in 2020 was the incident between Valtteri Bottas and George Russell in 2021.

The region is Italy’s Motorsport Valley similar to that which has developed around Silverstone in England, with the first non-championship Grand Prix taking place in 1963 and won by Scotsman Jim Clark. It is the home race for both Ferrari and RB, as well as Haas’s chassis manufacturer Dallara.

Imola became a regular round of the championship between 1980 and 2006, originally intended as one off while Monza was redeveloped the success of the race and support of the nearby Republic of San Marino the race sealed it place for the next 25 years. The current race is named the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix because it’s funded by the regional government rather than San Marino’s government.

Perhaps 1982 could be seen as one of the most controversial races, for similar reasons to Indianapolis 2005, and a turning point in the governance of the sport. Members of FOCA boycotted the race in a row with the FIA over the disqualification of Nelson Piquet’s Brabham and Keke Rosberg’s Williams in Rio.

Elio de Angelis and Riccardo Patrese both won the San Marino Grand Prix in 1985 and 1990 respectively, so they won on home soil but not in Monza the last Italians to win a Grand Prix in Italy. Gerhard Berger crashed heavily at Tamburello in 1989. He survived and the race was defined by another battle between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

1991 was a rain-soaked event, and Prost spun off on the grass at Rivazza on the parade lap, stalling the engine. Gerhard Berger did the same, but he kept his McLaren going; McLaren finished first and second, with Senna in front of Berger.

Following the events of 1994 and other shunts over the years, both Tamburello and Villeneuve were changed into chicanes. However, Tamburello still remains one of most challenging corners of the season.

Damon Hill won for a second time in 1997 followed by David Coulthard in 1998, Ferrari’s dominance started in 1999 and would see Michael win five of the next seven races. With him only being beaten by brother Ralf in 2001, the first time a pair of brothers had won races in F1.

Between 1999 and 2004 the race was dominated by the Schumacher brothers, with Michael winning four of the five races as Ferrari dominated the early 2000s while his brother Ralf would win for Williams in 2001. Jenson Button would take a surprise pole in 2004 before finishing behind Schumacher in the race.

The final ‘San Marino’ races were defined by battles between Schumacher and Fernando Alonso. 2005 was won by Alonso; and in 2006 Schumacher won for the seventh time, while Japanese driver Yuji Ide caused an accident, which flipped the car of Dutchman Christijan Albers, which cost him his FIA superlicense.

Following a fifteen-year hiatus the Grand Prix was revived originally as a one-off during the Covid pandemic in 2020. The renamed Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was first held in November before returning to its traditional April / May date the following season as the opening race of the European season.

Lewis Hamilton won the race in 2020. While Hamilton teammate Valtteri Bottas led the early phases and fought with Max Verstappen, the cooler November conditions brought rain and Hamilton took control of the race just before the quarter-distance mark.

Mercedes then controlled the remainder of the race sealing both the drivers and constructors’ championships for the seventh consecutive World Constructors’ Championships, setting a new record. However, the drivers’ championship wasn’t decided until the following race in Istanbul.

Hamilton took pole in 2021 after Sergio Perez admitted he lost time at Rivazza, Lando Norris would have started on the front row for the first time in his career. However, the McLaren driver lost his front-row start after breaching track limits at Rivazza dropping him to seventh.

Verstappen went on to win the race after blotting past teammate Perez and diving past Hamilton at Tamburello on the opening lap. Conditions were tricky with Mercedes being caught up in drama with Hamilton, reserve driver George Russell and Bottas, the first saw Hamilton run wide trying at Tosa.

But the race was defined by the dramatic crash through Tamburello between Russell and Bottas. The 200mph crash brought out the red flag as  Russell marched over to the remains of Bottas’ Mercedes to confront him, while Bottas replied to a light slap on his crash helmet from Russell by giving him the middle finger. Because the stewards classified the incident as a racing incident, neither driver was penalised.

Race & Circuit Guide

Round		07 of 23
Race		Formula 1 MSC Cruises Gran Premio Del Made in Italy e Dell’Emilia-Romagna 2024
Venue		Autódromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Configuration		2007
Circuit Length		4.909km (3.050 mi)
Laps		63
Race Distance		309.049km (192.034mi)
Lap Record	Race	01:15.484 (Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 2020
	Outright
Most wins drivers		Michael Schumacher (7)
Most wins manufacture		Ferrari (8) Williams

Wins at Imola across Italian/San Marino/Emilia-Romagna GPs

Fast facts

• The death of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna in 1994 tends to overshadow all other conversations about this circuit, one aspect of which is how magisterial Senna was around the fast, narrow track.
• Senna holds two records at Imola. His eight pole positions at the circuit is a record he shares with Michael Schumacher (at Suzuka) and Lewis Hamilton (at Albert Park).
• The 1980 Italian Grand Prix, which took place at Imola, is the only time in F1 World Championship history that the Italian Grand Prix has not been held at Monza.
• Imola is one of two circuits which has held three or more world championship Grands Prix under different titles only beaten by the Nürburgring which has held the Eifel, German, European and Luxembourg Grands Prix
• The stretch of 605 metres from pole position to the first braking zone is the third-longest on the calendar.
• 73% of the lap time is taken at full throttle the third-highest percentage of the 2021 F1 tracks. This includes 15 seconds of foot-to-the-floor lap time from the exit of the final corner to the braking zone for Turn 2.

Event timetable

What happened in 2022?

Max Verstappen beat Charles Leclerc by eight-tenths of a second to take pole position for the sprint following an incident-packed qualifying session. The session lasted for two hours and saw say five red flags for crashes and failures. Verstappen looked once again in control the stronger car in the wet when he edged ahead of Leclerc just before the final red flag caused by the McLaren of Lando Norris who crashed in the dying moments of Q3.

Norris had tried to spilt the two front runners when he crashed the McLaren at Acque Minerali causing the session to stop forty seconds before the chequered flag. Both Mercedes failed to get through to Q3, with George Russell being caught out by Carlos Sainz crashing out in the closing moments of Q2.

Verstappen again beat Leclerc in the sprint to secure race pole, it was a close fight between the two with their Ferrari holding off the Red Bull until the final three laps. The Dutchman had preserved his tyre life for longer and that allowed him to catch and pass Leclerc in the closing stages with a bold move on the penultimate lap to go round the outside at Tamburello and take the lead.

Sergio Perez was third making up four places from where he started on the grid. The Mexican in the closing stages managed to close like lightning followed by the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz to go behind their two teammates, Perez in the closing stages being a second and seven-tenths behind Leclerc.

Verstappen went on to dominate the race and won by sixteen seconds after holding the lead at the start and on the restart. The Dutchman soon set about opening the gap after Leclerc lost out at the start. The Ferrari’s driver’s race ended as it started a spin with ten laps to go saw him lose position and drop to seventh, teammate Sainz beached himself in the gravel.

Ferrari’s and Leclerc’s race went from bad to worse when he span the car while in third at Variante Alta, losing positions to Kevin Magnussen, George Russell and Valtteri Bottas. But he regained up seventh, on the closing lap he managed to catch and pass Yuki Tsunoda. but it was a difficult home race for Alpha Tauri with Pierre Gasly meanwhile found himself going backwards, in the Frenchman’s worst race in years and at Imola he could only manage thirteenth.

What to watch for?

Imola marks the first race of the European season which means that we are going to see the first big upgrades of the season. With Red Bull being still the favourites this weekend despite Lando Norris beating them on track in Miami, it will be interesting how the upgrades change the order at the front either Red Bull will pull ahead or that gap will close. The battle as we know is very tight behind and we know that could change, not only because of the upgrades but these fluctuations we see race-to-race in the midfield.

Ferrari is looking to be in a fight with McLaren as Mercedes I feel has slipped in terms of performance to fourth, they will be hoping that the upgrades will see the gap close. Mercedes is the only team in that group yet to win this season, this is a circuit which in my view is more technical rather than favouring speed. But I think if they get it right they could put themselves on track for a win, but they need to be smart and strategic

Imola is an old-school circuit which is tight and lined by gravel traps this adds another factor while the circuit is good for overtaking, getting it wrong that can lead to safety cars and red flags. Drivers like circuits like this because it challenges them and increases the chances of mistakes and that brings strategy into play. Overtaking is possible but its not easy to overtake given the tight nature and the factors mentioned above.

This is the home race for Ferrari and RB they will want a good weekend as this is in my view a key race in the season as we see the upgrades come. Imola does really breathe motorsport but this year we know marks the thirty anniversary of the deaths of Roland Ratezberger and Ayrton Senna a fortnight ago, which will be marked in some way.

I think the first European race of the season is always one which is interesting as we get a lot of upgrades, that means that Friday practice could be more difficult to read as teams try to understand these upgrades. This is the best opportunity given we have two street / street-style circuits after this weekend, before Barcelona when we get into a run of permanent circuit from Austria onwards.

2021 vs 2022 Race Data

2022 Lap time comparison

Tyres