Aston’s major Imola update, which included a floor redesign, a front wing and diffuser, was shaken down by Fernando Alonso in FP1 before Lance Stroll also received the parts from FP2 onwards. However, on a weekend where rival teams also wheeled out new parts or further dialled in those from Miami, Aston’s upgrades may have delivered
This month marked the 30-year anniversary of Senna’s fatal accident at Imola on 1 May 1994, which came the day after Austrian Ratzenberger lost his life in a crash. The death of Ratzenberger, which itself followed a serious practice accident for Senna’s compatriot Rubens Barrichello, shook the Williams driver to the core at the time.
Formula 1 headed back to Imola after the 2023 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix was cancelled due to flooding in the Italian region. This time, the sporting contest went ahead in sunshine throughout. The race was awfully dull until Max Verstappen’s struggles aboard his Red Bull and Lando Norris’s hard tyre brilliance in his McLaren combined to
The Mexican had failed to make the top 10 in qualifying, knocked out in Q2 with a lap time 0.015s slower than Daniel Ricciardo’s on his RB. Perez started the race on hard tyres in a bid to make the most of any timely safety car intervention, virtual or otherwise, which failed to materialise as
Charles Leclerc took a popular podium at Imola, with Carlos Sainz in fifth, as Ferrari was beaten by McLaren as F1’s closest challenger to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. With overtaking nearly impossible on similar tyre strategies, Ferrari feels it effectively lost the battle for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in qualifying, with Vasseur saying: “I
As part of an official visit to Italy, Thavisin was present at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix for discussions with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, as well as meeting other stakeholders. The Thai Grand Prix project is being pushed for by the government, but it is understood that Thavisin has sounded out Red Bull about its
Verstappen’s busy driving, PR and engineering schedule at Imola did not stop him from competing in the top split – the most competitive field – of iRacing’s Nurburgring enduro with his Team Redline sim squad. After taking pole in Italy on Saturday, he took on a three-hour stint on his sim in the evening, tacking
If this year’s edition of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix had been held last season, Max Verstappen’s victory from pole position at an Imola circuit notoriously difficult to overtake on would have been a foregone conclusion. Even in races where a Red Bull’s usual prodigious pace had been missed, Verstappen could be expected to control
In the opening phase of the race, it was Verstappen who had the edge as, after holding the advantage at the start, he was steadily able to eke out a gap on the medium tyres to be more than six seconds clear up until the first round of stops. Things did not seem to change
