Three Imola F1 classics, 20 years on from iconic Alonso/Schumacher battle

This weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is poised to spell an end to Imola as a grand prix venue, at least for now, with the classic track south east of Bologna running down its contract and no more room on the 2026 calendar to renew it.

The undulating 4.909km circuit can boast a storied history about as long as the official name of the 2025 edition, perplexingly dubbed the AWS Formula 1 Gran Premio del Made in Italy e dell’Emilia-Romagna.

Naturally, Imola is inextricably linked with one of F1’s darkest weekends, when Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna perished at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

But as its impending departure from F1 is met with mixed opinions – its tight and twisty layout is hardly conducive to overtaking, but it is another classic road course disappearing from the schedule – there are also reasons to look back at Imola’s F1 tenure with fondness.

2005 – Alonso and Schumacher serve up classic dogfight

The most memorable race in recent history may well be the 2005 edition, which featured a titanic battle between seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher and young challenger Fernando Alonso.

After Ferrari’s crushing 2004 dominance, a change in tyre rules saw a reversal of fortunes with Michelin runners Renault stealing a march on the Italian Bridgestone team.

Alonso and team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella had shared the first three races between them, while Schumacher had struggled with a year-old car before the F2005 brought some improvement from race three.

The German’s Imola weekend looked set to be another difficult outing, qualifying in 14th after going off in Sunday’s qualifying session, the second of two sessions that counted towards an aggregate time to decide the grid.

After polesitter Kimi Raikkonen disappeared from the lead of the race due to a malfunctioning McLaren, Alonso moved up from second and looked certain to tie up a third consecutive victory.

But the Ferrari proved extremely competitive in the race – a relatively rare occurrence in 2005 – and after undercutting a train of cars and then being stuck behind the Toyota of Jarno Trulli, Schumacher unleashed the F2005’s pace in the final stint. After his late, final fuel stop he emerged from the pits on Alonso’s tail, setting up a dogfight until the finish.

The Ferrari was clearly quicker, but even in 2005’s smaller and lighter cars overtaking proved very difficult in a dry race, with Alonso expertly holding a frustrated Schumacher at bay into the braking zones. The Spaniard eventually held firm to cross the line two tenths ahead of the Ferrari in what appeared to be a symbolic changing of the guard.

There is some irony here, for if overtaking had been more straightforward at the oft-criticised Imola circuit, Schumacher would have swiftly dispatched the Renault, sailed off into the distance and the race wouldn’t have been as memorable – bar for the German’s heroics. But now it is perhaps the first race that comes to mind, in no small part thanks to Alonso’s defensive masterclass.

1985 – Senna, Prost fall victim to thirsty turbo engines

The 1985 San Marino GP is also part of F1 folklore, but for very different reasons.

At the time F1 employed high-powered and extremely thirsty 1.5-litre turbocharged engines, which made a maximum fuel limit of 220 litres tricky to manage on certain circuits. As an aside, current F1 cars only consume 100kg of fuel over a race distance, which is a testament to just how thermally efficient the current – perhaps unheralded – engine regulations are.

Imola had been a particular pain point, with three cars running out of fuel in 1984. But that was nothing compared to the next edition a year later, which became famous for featuring three different leaders in the last five laps, none of whom actually won the race.

The race was Senna’s to lose, leading handsomely in his Lotus ahead of Ferrari’s Stefan Johansson. But four laps before the end the Brazilian had to park his fuel starved car, handing the lead to the Swede. But the tifosi’s delight was short-lived as he too dropped out one lap later due to an electronic gremlin which issued a false fuel reading.

Enter McLaren’s Alain Prost, who couldn’t believe his luck after seeing the two lead cars retire. The Professor had surely made the correct fuel calculations, visibly short shifting and coasting to make every precious drop of black gold count.

Prost duly took the chequered flag as the winner, but the drama didn’t stop there as he ground down halfway down the cooldown lap. The lack of fuel meant Prost’s McLaren-Porsche was 2kg underweight, so after a long back and forth between McLaren chief Ron Dennis and the scrutineers the Frenchman was thrown out of the results.

Within the space of four laps Senna’s team-mate Elio de Angelis was catapulted from outside podium contention to a shock win, which would end up being his last.

Read the full report from that eventful day, which also included drivers pushing their fuel-starved cars over the finish line, in this report from the archive.

2021 – Verstappen and Hamilton square off in wet-to-dry spectacle

In the modern era Imola has rarely produced instant classics, but the 2021 edition gave it a good go. There’s nothing like rain at a punishingly technical circuit to spice up the action.

Lewis Hamilton led the way from pole on an intermediate tyre start, but Max Verstappen’s excellent getaway from third saw him swoop past the inside to take the lead into Turn 1, forcing Hamilton over the kerbs. The start of the most fraught title battle of the current era.

Early crashes for Nicholas Latifi and Mick Schumacher set the tone for a chaotic afternoon, but the restart also brought thrilling wheel to wheel racing throughout the field, with Hamilton having another go at Verstappen while Lando Norris, Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz battled for the top six.

At the halfway mark the race received a fresh twist when Hamilton suffered a costly off at Tosa, while his team-mate Valtteri Bottas tangled with Williams’ George Russell in a frightening crash on the front straight.

The red flag restart prompted more frantic racing, and it gave Hamilton the opportunity to move from eighth back to second, albeit well behind runaway winner Verstappen. It was a race that had a bit of everything, and it showed that a bit of rain can transform Imola into a real spectacle on its day.

As it stands no precipitation is forecast for this weekend, which may well be Imola’s F1 swansong for the foreseeable future. But in a bid to spice up the racing Pirelli is debuting its softest C6 compound. Will it be enough to give the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix a fitting send-off?