The 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix marks 30 years since the 1994 race where we lost two all-time legends – Roland Ratzenberger and three-time world champion, Ayrton Senna. Sebastian Vettel made an emotional tribute to Senna by creating T-shirts (as pictured), completed a remembrance run for both drivers, and also drove Senna’s McLaren MP4/8 during a demonstration lap before the race.
Image Credit: Clive Rose via Getty Images
On race day, the Tifosi were out in full force around the Autodromo Enzo E Dino Ferrari. Crimson merchandise and roars of encouragement filled the grandstands when number 16, Charles Leclerc drove through the chequered flag in P3. After initially letting Norris out of his sight, his mid-race tyres seem to come alive. The pace of both Ferraris was impressive, however it was not enough for Leclerc to get ahead of Norris, ending with a seven second gap across the line.
Carlos Sainz had a mixed race. He held back Oscar Piastri for 28 laps, however the pure pace advantage the McLaren had was inevitable. Finishing P5, Sainz expressed his concern that Ferrari were “simply lacking” in pace.
Imola proved to be a fabulous weekend for McLaren and fans of the team in papaya. Norris came 0.7 seconds away from his second, and consecutive win. Piastri also had a tough fight with the Ferraris, eventually passing Sainz but not quite quick enough to overtake Leclerc too. This P2 for Norris was McLaren’s best result at Imola for 30 years.
The Williams garage had a weekend to forget – especially for the Thai driver, Alex Albon. After the second pitstop, Albon had an issue with tyres, stating something was wrong over the radio. Concerningly, his tyre was not fitted correctly leading to another pitstop. Throughout the whole race, he made a total of four pitstops. Due to the testing conditions, the team decided to save the running of the car and to retire.
The one stop strategy for Logan Sargeant saw him begin the race on the hard tyres. He completed the one stop and guided the FW46 home for P17. This finish was a positive step forward considering Sargeant had a discussion with team principal, James Vowles regarding his seat. A steady P17 may be a positive for Sargeant.
A special commendation to Valtteri Bottas for pitting on lap nine and sticking with the one stop strategy. He drove the tyres for 54 laps through the chequered flag, unfortunately finishing in P18.
The second race of the European leg of the championship will be held in Monaco. It will be the 81st race around the streets of Monte Carlo.
The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, also known as the Imola Grand Prix, is the first of two grands prix to be held in Italy. It it held at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari track. This year marks the return of Imola, as last year the race was cancelled due to flooding. The track is made up of 19 corners and one DRS zone, with a track length of 4.909km. Drivers have to tackle a combination of sharp corners and braking zones within the 63 lap race,, making Imola one of the most technical races of the season.
After two weekends of sprints, we return to a normal race weekend format.
Friday:
Free Practice One – 13:30 – 14:30
Free Practice Two – 17:00 – 18:00
Saturday:
Free Practice Three – 12:30 – 13:30
Qualifying – 16:00 – 17:00
Sunday:
Race – 15:00
(All times displayed are the local track times, UK time is an hour behind.)
Fun Facts about Imola
On the return of the circuit back in the F1 calendar in 2020, Lewis Hamilton was victorious. He also set a lap record of 1:15.484.
Ayrton Senna holds the record for most pole positions at Imola with eight. His record is tied with Michael Schumacher who had eight poles at Suzuka, Japan and Hamilton with eight at Albert Park, Australia.
Imola hosts the first European race of the 2024 season, just as it did when it was known as the San Marino Grand Prix between 1981 and 2006.
Despite having been called the San Marino Grand Prix, the circuit is over 100km away from the city and not within San Marino’s own territory. It was named after San Marino nearby due to there already being an Italian Grand Prix held in Monza.
At the wish of Enzo Ferrari, track construction began back in March 1950. Testing was held two years later in October 1952. The Autodromo di Imola held its first racing event a year later in 1953. Following the death of Enzo’s first son, Dino, the track was renamed Autodromo Dino Ferrari in his memory in 1956.
1980 marked the first grand prix held at Imola, taking the place of Monza that year. Nelson Piquet took the first ever win with Brabham. With the return of Monza the following year and the love for the Imola circuit, the 1981 season saw the first San Marino Grand Prix. Following the passing Enzo Ferrari in 1988, the track would be renamed for the last time to Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, commemorating Enzo’s legacy.
The San Marino Grand Prix holds memories for many fans. But most notoriously, the 1994 Imola Grand Prix will be remembered as one of the most tragic weekends in the history of Formula One. In practice, Rubens Barrichello suffered a severe concussion after a collision. On the Saturday, Roland Ratzenberger suffered a fatal collision at Villeneuve Corner. And, on the Sunday, racing legend, Ayrton Senna was hit by debris after coming off the track, resulting in his untimely death.
The last ever San Marino Grand Prix was held in 2006, with Michael Schumacher taking the win. However, the track returned to the F1 calendar in 2020 as the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton taking the inaugural win.
May 1st 2024 was 30 years since the death of F1 legend, Ayrton Senna. Teams and drivers took the time to pay their respects and celebrate his legacy.
To pay tribute to Senna, Sebastian Vettel will drive Senna’s McLaren MP4/8 at this weekend’s grand prix. The MP4/8 (the car McLaren competed with in the 1993 season) was the last car Senna drove with the team before his move to Williams for 1994.
Senna’s legacy lives on through the celebrations of his success and the inspiration he left behind for this generation of drivers.
F1 returned to Imola for the fourth round of the season; the Italian circuit was famous for producing great races. The weekend started with Charles Leclerc leading the drivers standings, which was still the case at the end of the weekend; however, the gap between first and second had reduced significantly.
The weather conditions for the weekend varied, with drivers going between full wets, inters and slick tyres. In FP1, there were plenty of spins out on track, including some from the championship leader himself. It was a Ferrari 1-2 in the first practice (the only practice before qualifying), followed by Verstappen and the two Haas drivers. Sebastian Vettel also seemed to make some headway for Aston Martin as he placed eighth in FP1.
Source: grandprix247.com
Qualifying saw many drivers on soft tyres (others followed suit after) but by the end of it, intermediates were needed to keep the cars on track. The first red flag was brought out by Albon, whose brakes caught fire and had some debris spread across the track- ending his qualifying session early. They got back to setting fast times soon after, and this meant that both AlphaTauri’s were knocked out of Q1 in their home race alongside Ocon and Latifi.
There was a forecast of rain looming over the circuit, drivers being told they had to make their one lap count before the rain came. That is exactly what Carlos Sainz did just before he spun out and crashed, leaving him second after Verstappen who was leading. Hamilton, Russell, Schumacher, Zhou and Stroll were in the “drop zone” and were under threat of being knocked out of Q2 because the rain had started falling. The session did restart; however, the times could not be improved, so those first runs really did count a lot.
In Q3 Magnussen brought out another red flag. The track had dried slightly so it seemed intermediate tyres would finish the qualifying session. Soon, more rain poured. Leclerc went fastest, followed by reigning world champion Verstappen, only to swap it around on the next set of runs which was soon interrupted by Bottas’ crash. But there was still time for another lap. However, it would soon be assumed that no one would further better their times- this just before Norris went off the track himself with just a few second of the session remaining, causing the session to end slightly prematurely.
Source: planetf1.com
After the top two of Verstappen and Leclerc, Norris had set himself up in P3, alongside Magnussen in P4 and Alonso in P5 with good qualifying sessions for their teams. Ricciardo placed a solid sixth for McLaren, with Perez in seventh, Bottas in eight, and a brilliant P9 for Vettel in the Aston Martin, the first Q3 of the season for the team. Sainz would start tenth for the sprint race on the Saturday.
Source: topgear.com
Many teams used FP2 to understand the cars better for the race, focusing on race pace and running with high fuel. The weather was much better in comparison to Friday, so this session would be the first test of dry weather conditions.
George Russell, Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc made up the top 3. While it was an informative session for some teams, others struggled to get out of the garage. Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo we’re unable to set any lap times; a similar issue arose for Lando Norris who had gone out on track but was faced with a break issue soon after.
The first sprint race of the season seemed like it would be exciting: eight points on offer for the winner and one point for eight place meant there was more to gain than last year’s sprint races.
It was Charles Leclerc who would take the lead of the race at lights out, getting a better start than pole sitter Max Verstappen. A safety car was quickly deployed after Guanyu Zhou and Pierre Gasly made contact, the former, unable to finish the sprint.
Verstappen would later go on to reclaim P1 with two laps to go after he had been following Leclerc closely along for the majority of the sprint race.
Source: theguardian.com
Veratappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez and Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz both gained a handful of places to make up for their original qualifying positions of seventh and tenth respectively. In that manner, Lando Norris of McLaren would drop down to fifth, while his teammate Daniel Ricciardo stayed in sixth. 
Bottas finished ahead of Magnussen in seventh, with the Haas Dane snatching the last point available from the sprint race. Alonso was in P9, ahead of Schumacher in tenth who completed the sprint on medium tyres.
Russell, Tsunoda and Vettel were 11th, 12th and 13th— the Aston Martin driver slowly going down on the grid.
It was a tough weekend for Hamilton, who moved down a place from his start position, finishing in 14th, followed by Stroll in 15th, Ocon in 16th, Gasly in 17th, Albon in 18th (who had moved 2 places from his last place start), his teammate Latifi in 19th and Zhou, who was the only driver not to finish.
Source: breakingnews.ie
Race report
Race day took place in the wet, so it was only natural to expect and be braced for a crazy day, which we definitely had.
After an excellent start to the race, Max Verstappen dominated the whole way through, eventually coming home in first place. Earning his nickname of “Minister of Defence”, Sergio Perez put up an excellent fight against home hero Charles Leclerc to finish in second, resulting in a Red Bull 1-2 on Ferrari’s home turf. McLaren driver Lando Norris capitalised on mistakes ahead in order to bring back a lucky third place podium for McLaren.
Source: dailysabah.com
“But wait”, I hear you ask, “what happened to Ferrari?!” After such a strong start to the season, it was a surprise to see neither Ferrari on the podium at Imola. Carlos Sainz suffered another DNF this weekend following first lap contact with Daniel Ricciardo which left his F1-75 beached in the gravel (Ricciardo was able to come away from the contact and continue, eventually finishing in 18th). Charles Leclerc was set to finish in third place before a spin late in the race left him in 9th place – although he was able to recover to 6th.
It was another good weekend for George Russell in the Mercedes, with the English driver finishing in fourth place. However, teammate and former champion Lewis Hamilton had a much harder time with the car, finishing in thirteenth place, suggesting that the issues with the 2022 Mercedes are far from over.
Source: sasatimes.com
It was a very good weekend to be Sebastian Vettel, who is a famously strong performer in wet conditions. The German driver finished in 8th place for Aston Martin with teammate Lance Stroll in 10th (another good wet-weather driver), bringing home Aston Martin’s first points finishes of the year.
Source: motorsport.com
Another strong weekend for Valtteri Bottas saw him drive his Alfa Romeo all the way to a fifth place finish, another strong performance for the Finnish driver who is clearly flourishing in a new team. Rookie teammate Zhou Guanyu finished in 15th place, still a good result and showing promise for the Chinese driver.
Returning Haas driver Kevin Magnussen scored another points finish for the American team in ninth place, adding to their excellent start to the 2022 season. However, Mick Schumacher was caught in contact on the first lap and was unable to recover, leaving him in seventeenth place and outside of the points once again.
Source: planetf1.com
We head to the inaugural Miami GP for round 5 of the 2022 season, as we’ve seen plenty of good racing so far, we’re sure there’s plenty more to come at the new circuit.
Make sure you keep an eye out for more articles in the meantime and check out our social media for updates in the F1 community!
As we came from a nail biting season opener in Bahrain. With RedBull and reigning world champions Mercedes battling it out from Race 1 and being extremely close to each other in terms of pace, both in quail and race.
Officially named as,
Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell’emilia Romagna 2021
The venue made a return to the F1 calendar to help during the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Fondly remembered as the ‘San Marino GP’. With a circuit length of 4.9km. It offers a lot of history and amazing opportunities for racing.
RACE
The track was wet at the start. With the rain in the region pouring over the track. All the running in the practice sessions was put to the side, as drivers tried to gauge the driving conditions. Teams ran through the various options to setup the car and race strategy. A partially wet quali session meant the teams had limited but crucial performance data to plan ahead. Charles Leclerc stepped over the limits as he tried to warm up the car up on the formation laps, no damage done but some info gathered about his Ferrari in that condition.
The race started tentatively in the wet conditions, as everyone got up to speed in the conditions. Both the Red Bulls mugged Hamilton into Turn1. As Hamilton tried to keep with the Bulls, he got forced wide and over the sausage kerbs. Taking damage on his car and losing an endplate on his front wing. However the wet conditions meant that the performance loss was not significant.
IMOLA, ITALY – APRIL 17: Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes W12 launches off a raised kerb during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari on April 17, 2021 in Imola, Italy. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)
As we move our attention to the rest of the field, a thick envelope of spray limits us to follow along on the timing screens. Meanwhile the Wiliams of Latifi got into a spin, as he rejoined the track the poor visibility made Mazepin disappear in the spray. Resulting in contact sending Latifi in the barriers making him the first DNF of the race, Mazepin continued on as only his front left tyre came in contact.
As his teammate saw the Safety Car come out, Mick Schumaker smashed his front wing while weaving on the main straight to get temperature into his tyres. Closing the pitlane due to the debris left at the pit exit. As Mick went around the circuit, he had to go around once more as the pitlane was still closed; taking care not to lose the part of his front wing dangling through a couple of wires. The debris was cleared and the safety car came into the pits. Max dipped into a wet patch sending him into a spin, good for him that Lerclerc slowed down and he recovered quickly.
Max pulled off a controlled restart. Pulling a steady gap from the pack. An exciting fight between Gasly, Norris (who came so close to a front row start in qualifying) and Sainz kept the audience on their toes, as the drivers found grip in the damp conditions and battled hard for the mid-points positions. At this point in time, Valterri Bottas was hanging on the edge of the points places. Starting from P8 the finnish driver was having a difficult weekend till this point.
As the first round of pit stops rolled around, Red Bull pulled the trigger first from the top 2 teams and pulled a clean stop for Verstappen. Hamilton’s tyre change on Lap 28 was a slow 4 second stop (this was before the Technical Directive for pit stops came into effect). As the wet tyres take a few laps to warm up, it took a while for him to start putting in decent lap times. However it wasn’t enough, as it was evident on Lap 31 when Hamilton was lapping Russell at Turn 9 but had to go off the relatively dry racing line. Sending him into a gravel trap, effectively slowing him down just before clipping his front wing at the barrier. By the time Hamilton reversed out of that abrupt stop taking care not to get stuck in the gravel trap, he was a lap down from the Max who was leading the race.
But something else was happening nearby on the main straight. Russell was overtaking an out of place Mercedes of Valtteri in P9 when the rear of the Williams snapped out and crashed heavily into Valtteri. Spewing debris all over the place. Mick and Kimi witnessed the incident happening right in front of them, having to drive straight through the debris. This brought a red flag. Allowing the Merc team to check Lewis’s car and fix the sensor probe with some good old duct tape. Having this presented a golden opportunity for Hamilton to unlap himself and limited damage in the end by resuming in P8
As the race resumed on Lap 35, Max once again took supreme control and took the pack racing again. Norris and Leclerc benefitting from the chaos ahead were in the podium places on pure performance. Norris made good use of the situation and moved into P2 within the first lap from the restart. Tsunoda unfortunately spun while following closely, resulting in his good performance from the weekend reduced by 10 places. Perez suffered a similar fate. The Mexican driving the RB16B for the first time in wet conditions during a race situation and in P14 but adapted well to finish P11 at the end of the race. Just at the cusp of the points.
On lap 60, Hamilton overtook Norris to take P2. The young Brit put up a good defensive drive keeping the 7-time world champion behind for a few laps, until Lewis got into the perfect position using all of his experience and performance from W12 to move up on the second step of the podium.
IMOLA, ITALY – APRIL 18: Race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (33) Red Bull Racing RB16B Honda takes the chequered flag during the F1 Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari on April 18, 2021 in Imola, Italy. (Photo by Mario Renzi – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)
Max Verstappen finally broke the Italian curse by winning in Imola, the talented driver not being able to finish a single Italian race in the previous season. A comfortable win for the title challenger who drove clinically through the race and managed the tyres well. Resulting in Hamilton finishing 22 second behind with Lando Norris right behind him. The Papaya car gave another career best finish of P3. The track did not dry up significantly, having the cars limited from their full potential. Hamilton also took the fastest lap, putting it clear of the next best lap by Max by around 6 tenths of a second.
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