Imola gives up bitterly, but not the only one
Formula 1 calendars are planned well in advance, but – as we have learned especially in recent years – they can always change, even at the last moment. The withdrawal from Imola, which took place today at lunchtime, is certainly not an isolated case, even if it is the first expressly linked to meteorological problems. In fact, it has already happened that the Circus had planned a Grand Prix, only to then have to backtrack close to the event.
The Coronavirus
The last cases of cancellation in chronological order were the 2023 Chinese Grand Prix and the 2022 Russian Grand Prix, but these decisions came months before the actual races took place, and they certainly weren’t a surprise, considering the precarious management of the Covid- 19 in the Asian giant and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. To return to a cancellation close to the race, you have to go to Melbourne 2020, when even the drivers and teams had arrived at the circuit only to then backtrack after a member of the McLaren team tested positive for the Coronavirus.
Pre-2020 cancellations and postponements
A Grand Prix can be canceled for various reasons, and Formula 1 has sometimes offered bizarre ones. They certainly weren’t in 1955, when the Le Mans tragedy (the biggest in motoring history) canceled the races at Reims, Nürburgring, Bremgarten and Pedralbes. However, these were not the first canceled races in the history of Formula 1: the 1952 and 1953 Spanish GPs and the 1954 Dutch GP were already canceled due to lack of money. In 1956 two World Championship races (Holland and Spain) were removed from the calendar due to the crisis of Suez and the consequent increase in the price of oil. For the same reason there were no races at Spa, Zandvoort and Pedrables in 1957. For various reasons, mostly linked to money, Germany skipped in 1958 and 1960, Belgium, Argentina and Morocco in 1959 (with the Casablanca GP which was also canceled for 1960 and 1961). In 1965, however, Zeltweg was canceled due to circuit safety reasons.
Four years later, in 1969, the Spa GP was canceled under pressure from the pilots union: the latter did not want to race because they considered the circuit unsuitable in terms of safety. Led by Jackie Stewart, who risked his life in the Ardennes in 1966, the GPDA succeeded in establishing itself: “The Spa circuit is too dangerous. It consists of roads of normal width and very high speeds are reached. No one is protected, neither the riders nor the spectators. Almost no improvements have been made since 1930. In the wet, this circuit is deadly: the risk of skidding is enormous. When you go very fast, the tires come off in puddles and you lose contact with the road“, said the three-time world champion. The precarious safety of the tracks also led to the cancellation of the 1970 edition of the Nürburgring and those of 1971 at Spa, while Mexico City lost interest in F1 following the recent death of Pedro Rodriguez and also canceled the 1972 race. this year a GP was supposed to be held at the Ontario Motor Speedway but skipped because the circuit had not staged any test events prior to the race. For safety reasons he also skipped Zandvoort.
In 1975 the Canadian Grand Prix was canceled due to a lack of agreement between the Mosport circuit and FOCA. A year later, the scheduled Argentine Grand Prix could not be held due to the serious economic and social problems of the country, which had just experienced the military dictatorship. In 1977, following Niki Lauda’s terrible accident, the Nürburgring did not host the Grand Prix. Two years later, the deaths of Ronnie Peterson and Gunnar Nilsson led the Anderstorp circuit (Sweden), the public and promoters to lose interest in Formula 1, canceling the GP. In 1980 Italy also experienced the cancellation of a tender, when Monza was excluded due to the non-completion of work on the runway. In that year the Italian GP was held in Imola, while the Spanish GP – due to lack of agreements between FISA and FOCA – was raced but did not count for the World Championship: the same happened in Kyalami in 1981.
In 1982 the Argentine and Spanish Grands Prix were skipped, same fate for Dijon and Las Vegas. In 1985 Spa had to surrender for the poor track conditions (as can be seen from the cover photo), making the entire Formula 1 look bad: in this case, however, there can be no question of canceling the Grand Prix but only of postponing it, since the race was rescheduled on 15 September. Also in 1985 New York raised the white flag (for the third year in a row), while Dallas did not repeat the disastrous event of 1984, held under incredible heat. The GPs of Argentina (1986) and Canada (1987) were also skipped due to economic reasons: the latter case is curious, since the Montreal race was the subject of fierce contention between the two brewing companies Labatt and Molson, to the point of impatient Bernie Ecclestone. A year later, in 1988, it was Austria’s turn to say goodbye to Formula 1: the safety problems of theOsterreichring they removed his presence on the calendar until 1997.
We are thus in the 90s, which began with the cancellation of the Jacarepagua GP (but the race in Brazil was only moved to Interlagos). After two quiet years, in 1993 he missed the Mexican GP due to modernization works never carried out at the Hermanos Rodriguez racetrack. For the same reason there was no racing in Argentina in 1994, while Kyalami abandoned Formula 1, despite being on the calendar, due to economic problems. The last GP held in Africa dates back to 1993. In 1995, the Pacific GP (in Aida, Japan) scheduled for April 16 was moved to October due to an earthquake. In 1997 and 1998 the GP of Portugal should have been held at Estoril. The managers of the racetrack refused to modernize the track and forced the FIA to entrust the 1997 season finale to Jerez de la Frontera, where the sensational Schumacher-Villeneuve clash took place. Argentina skipped again in 1999, never returning to Formula 1: the absence of the Buenos Aires circuit caused a gap of five weeks in the calendar between the first two races. The last striking case concerns the GP of Bahrain a Sakhir, in 2011: the race, set for March 13 as the inaugural stage of the World Cup, was canceled from the calendar following the protests of the “Arab spring”. Initially postponed to October, the event was later canceled and resumed starting the following year.
#Stories #canceled #GPs #Imola #latest #long #list