It pains me to write this because I adore the place – but Formula 1 probably shouldn’t be racing at Imola this weekend.
Believe me, I never thought I’d tap out that sentence about a race circuit I consider one of the best in Europe, if not the world. But sadly the former home of the San Marino Grand Prix, now the host of the Emilia Romagna GP, is outdated, a throwback – and not entirely in a good sense. The 2020 return was proof enough.
In a hastily compiled ‘emergency’ calendar formed in the midst of a global health crisis, Imola was a welcome and familiar haven last November for its first F1 grand prix since 2006, especially as it is fondly remembered as a traditional European season opener from the past – just as it is this weekend, in fact.
But while the surrounding Emilia Romagna countryside was as beautiful as it ever was, the undulating ribbon of track a proper test and the grass verges and close barriers something to concentrate the minds of every driver usually pampered by acres of asphalt run-off, the long-wheelbase, heavy, hybrid F1 cars appeared to have outgrown the place. Plus overtaking was near-on impossible. It always was tough to pass here, especially after the chicanes were added at Tamburello and Villeneuve in the wake of Ayrton Senna’s death in 1994, and with the high-drag, high-grip modern F1 cars that are the fastest ever seen, the race was destined to be processional.
Sure, there were incidents. Valtteri Bottas was unlucky to pick up a piece of Ferrari debris that compromised his Mercedes-AMG, leading to Max Verstappen gaining a run through the two Rivazza corners and pulling a move into the Tamburello chicane – the only real overtaking spot on the three-mile track as it is today. But he’d have struggled to make it stick without Bottas’s clear impediment. Then Verstappen was pitched off by a tyre failure. Lucky for him, it wasn’t at the old pre-chicane Tamburello where Senna crashed.
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Yes, as it's read, the race was great, plent overtakes, race incidents, thank heavens it didn't turn into a safety car race, or it rained the whole race, no, we got to see close racing, young talent doing well, veterans doing well and not so well ( Vettel,Kimi) and we were going to get a battle at the end by the two main men, alas, but for lapse, it didn't happen, and, you can't take away his performance at the end, I'm not a Lewis fan ( of the Track) .
Did you write this before Lewis went from 9th to 2nd?. The "whole point" of Imola was Tamburello and Villeneuve so from that point of view I get what you are saying.