The Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix opens the European part of the season, which, traditionally interrupted by a race in Canada, ends in Baku after the summer break in mid-September.
Double stages in Imola and Monaco, then a series of three races in a row in Barcelona, Spielberg and Silverstone, double stages in Hungary and Belgium and, after a break, back-to-back Zandvoort and Monza. The schedule is tight, with a break for the Olympic Games in Paris.
Last year, the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix was canceled due to flooding, when the region experienced six months of rain after a long drought. The Civil Protection Department has issued a red alert in Emilia-Romagna. Staff were ordered to leave the paddock and the race was cancelled. The track was almost not damaged, but the region suffered – people died, Imola could not receive fans in such a situation.
They did not replace the stage due to complex logistics – on the calendar it was between Miami and Monaco, so the teams were given a three-week break. This year the break is a week shorter, but the stage will be held in the usual format with three training sessions, so everyone will bring many new products with them, which they can finally test after two consecutive stages with a sprint on Saturday.
A significant part of the weekend in Imola will be dedicated to the sad date: the thirtieth anniversary of the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna. It’s a good thing that the weekend doesn’t take place in early May; that would be too symbolic. And God grant it works this time. We’ve had enough off-piste tragedies.
Thirty years ago, after Imola, it was proposed to ban Formula 1. Just cancel the championship and stop holding it. When the main character dies in front of everyone, this is not a sport, but the topic was quickly closed and Adrian Newey was removed from the list of suspects.
Who would have thought that thirty years later he would become a news hero again. And Lewis Hamilton, whose idol was and will be Ayrton Senna, will be allowed to drive Newey’s car in 2026, in which Ayrton died thirty years ago.
But for now these are just fantasies and assumptions.
The Enzo and Dino Ferrari Circuit in Imola will host the Grand Prix for the 31st time. In 1980 it was the Italian Grand Prix, for 26 years the San Marino Grand Prix took place on the circuit, and then, after a long break, the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
In the Covid year of 2020, Formula 1 simply had no choice – and Imola returned after a fourteen-year break. The stage was unique – with only one training session on Saturday, otherwise the teams would not have had time to get cars and equipment from Portimao. Daniil Kvyat then finished the race fourth and achieved his best result of the season, his last in Formula 1.
Michael Schumacher has the most wins in Imola – 7, among the teams – Williams and Ferrari – 8 each, but this weekend we have other favorites, it will be interesting to see their battle, but there is a good chance that after the relative failure in Miami, Red Bull will come back convincingly.
Not a week goes by without news of transitions – the teams are preparing in advance for the regulatory change in 2026, hoping to approach it with new vigor, with a better line-up of drivers and engineers, because the next opportunity to change the balance of power will not be soon.
According to Christian Horner, they lured more than 200 Mercedes employees. The main character of ‘Silver Arrows’, Lewis Hamilton, announced his move to Ferrari in the winter – the team collapses like a house of cards, not knowing how to solve the problems with a slow car. In Formula 1 it has rarely happened that the customers perform better than the factory team, but this is exactly what is happening at Mercedes. The higher you rise, the more painful it is to fall. Who would have thought this fall would last so long. And I wonder how it will all end at Red Bull?
And Zac Brown is great. No one believed that he could revive McLaren after last season’s failed start by spreading himself across many projects in different series, but he did. The next question is stability, but his opponents’ problems are clearly in his favor.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
