Imola cancelled
The tragic outcome of the flood in Emilia Romagna it has reached 13 victims, over 10,000 displaced people in the entire region and damages for billions of euros. Formula 1’s decision not to contest the Imola Grand Prix came on Wednesday and was naturally taken without hesitation, in such a tragic scenario that it brought the local population to its knees. The race scheduled for this weekend will not be made up and therefore the world championship calendar will consist of 22 appointments.
The weekend at the circuit named in memory of Enzo and Dino Ferrari was particularly eagerly awaited by enthusiasts and insiders, given that it essentially kicked off the European GP season and therefore brought with it – as often happens – an important load of updates on single-seaters.
It is no mystery that Mercedes had planned precisely for Imola to bring its B version of the W14 to the track, with the introduction of the new aerodynamic look which will therefore be moved to Montmelò. But even Ferrari had announced a substantial package of updates, which would – in the hopes – give a new boost to the SF-23.
But not only that, Imola had been circled on the calendar for the test on the new qualification format, which would have seen the drivers forced to use the Hard compound in Q1, the Medium in Q2 and the Soft in Q3. The decision would have led to a reduction of the sets of tires brought to the track by Pirelli for each driver, from 13 to 11, thus significantly affecting environmental sustainability. What’s more, a new extreme wet tire had been prepared – again for the Emilia Romagna GP – which did not need to pre-heat the tyrewarmers.
New qualifications: where will they be seen?
What happened in Italy has clearly pushed the sporting field into the background, and therefore the changes to the qualifying format will not be able to be tested this weekend.
As reported by Motorsport Magazine, Formula 1 has decided, together with Pirelli, to evaluate the new qualifications for the Hungarian Grand Prix on 21-23 July.
But that’s not all, because the Italian tire specialist asked the Federation and Liberty Media to identify a second appointment to replace Imola, to have a further test on the new Saturday afternoon format.
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