769 replies to this topic

[thegamer23]

 

Portoguese GP Thread: https://forums.autos...se-gp-build-up/
F1 Silly Season 2021: https://forums.autos...season/page-160
F1 Media Ratings: https://forums.autos...ratings/page-22

 

 

F1 is back in Imola after a 14 years break. 

This terrible, weird year brought us back one of F1's most iconic tracks.

The Autodromo Enzo & Dino Ferrari of Imola. A real challenge for the drivers, with very little room for mistakes, fast chicanes, elevation changes & an incredible landscape. 

 

F1 is back in my country! 

The first GP i attended, it was 2005, and it was such an amazing experience. 
Back in the V10 days, i was a little kid, and i remember i could clearly hear the engines of the cars from 20 km's distance, as the sound was carried by the wind over the hills. 

 

Yet, this time around there's not much buzz going around the event.

 

Unfortunately, Coronavirus numbers has started raising back up in Italy, big time, and restrictions have been put back with immediate effect.
So the event will likely be held behind closed doors.

 

But what really matters is that the Circus is back on a track that, IMHO, should earn its space back in the F1 calendar.

 

-------------------

 

PORTIMAO DELIVERED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BUT IMOLA COULD SURPRISE!

 

 

 

 

 

A spectacular 4.909 km circuit into the Park of Acque Minerali, Imola is an old school circuit with plenty of elevation changes, fast section & chicanes. 
It's got pretty much of everything.

 

 

 

 

Let's go into a bit of a track analysis! 

 

VARIANTE TAMBURELLO

 

One of F1's most infamous corners. 

The Tamburello was originally a super fast, flat-out left hander that led into the Variante Tosa. 
Many incidents occoured there: Gerhard Berger & Nelson Piquet had huge shunts, without big consequences, before the tragic Ayrton Senna's crash in 1994.

 

Every year, hundreds of fans gathers around the Ayrton Senna's Statue, in the park near the Tamburello's barriers. 

They come & pay homage to the Brazilian Legend, leaving their messages & photos in the track's fences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VARIANTE VILLENEUVE

 

A brief stretch after the Tamburello leads to a super fast left-right, high speed chicane, the Variante Villeneuve. 

Entry speeds will be well over 230 km/h & the current F1 cars should pull very high G's there. 

Exit is crucial: there's gravel all over the runoff. Even the slight mistake there and you'll be lucky to not bin it into the outside wall. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CURVA TOSA

After flying past the Villeneuve chicane we jump to the brakes for the Curva Tosa!
A slow up-hill, long radius hairpin, where i can imagine someone brave trying a Dive-Bomb in the inside. There's room for a late overtaking manouver there. 

 

  

 

 

 

 

CURVA PIRATELLA

After a huge run uphill, the cars will fly into the Piratella corner. 

The fastest corner of the track, with a blind entry. The cars will flick left at around 250 km/h, jumping into the Acque Minerali's downhill section.
Not a huge runoff there either, so this is going to split the man from the boys!

 

 

 

 

 

 

CURVA ACQUE MINERALI

 

Mind blowing section! 

The cars will approach it coming from a Steep Downhill, full-throttle at around 270+ km/h. 

Fly downhill, than heavy braking into the first of the Curve Minerali, jump on the inside kerb and get a good exit beacause there's a big up-hill section coming next!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VARIANTE ALTA

 

A good, old, chicane!
Quite similar to the Nurburgring's end lap chicane, the Variante Alta needs to be attacked on the kerbs to get the perfect exit to the next downhill section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CURVA RIVAZZA

 

Downhill approach to this pair of double 90°, medium speed corners. Kind of similar to the last two corners of Sochi.
Bu there, zero room for mistake, gravel all around, and crucial exit into the Main Straight!

 

 

 

 

 

START/FINISH STRAIGHT
 

That's where the new version of Imola differs from the past: no chicane! 

The drivers will just fly past the start/finish straight till the Tamburello, reaching top speeds of 330 km/h. 

A DRS Zone will be placed there, allowing overtakes!

 

 

 

 

-------------------

 

 

UNIQUE TRACK /// UNIQUE SCHEDULE

 

FRIDAY:                NO ACTION

 

SATURDAY:        FREE PRACTICE (9.00-10-30) 
                                QUALIFYING        (13.00-14.00) 

 

SUNDAY:           RACE                    (12.10) 

 

(UK TIMES)

 

 

Well, at least the Nurburgring GP was a good preparation for the GP of Imola.

In fact, no action will take place on friday. 

The only Free Practice session will be run on Saturday morning, a 90 minutes session, than straight into Quali!

Less time to prep, less time to repair damage, should be interesting!

 

 

-------------------

 

 

WEATHER FORECAST /// SUN EXPECTED!

 

 

The Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna will be run in surprisingly hot & dry conditions considering the period! 

 

A maximum temperature of 20°C is expected on Sunday, lowest temperature of 8°c.
Sun should be shining through the weekend, at the moment there's no risk of rain!

 

 

 

 

 

-------------------

 

HISTORICAL IMOLA ACTION

           

 

           

 

          

 

         

 

 

Edited by thegamer23, 25 October 2020 - 20:42.

[ARTGP]

Sheesh, some people move on quick  .  

 

Nice 

Edited by ARTGP, 25 October 2020 - 20:28.

[F12020]

cannot wait to see imola  back 

[cpbell]

Imola was always one of the iconic circuits in the old days, yet, for those of my generation, it always holds sadness as a consequence of the events of the 30th of April and the 1st of May 1994.

[Risil]

Love it, thank you TheGamer. Never thought we'd see F1 back at Imola.

[FLB]

Love it, thank you TheGamer. Never thought we'd see F1 back at Imola.

Same.

[Francesc]

Great op.

Really looking forward to this. Imola should be on the calendar, even if it's only alternating with other tracks.

F1 cars had a special sound there.

Btw I really like this compressed two day schedule. Every gp should be like this.

Edited by Francesc, 25 October 2020 - 22:06.

[LucaP]

The Tosa-Piratella-Acque Minerali section is one of my favourites in all racetracks.

 

Hopefully they can manage track limits on the outside of the latter part of Acque Minerali

[F12020]

so will evey one make Tamborello on lap one 

[Astandahl]

I was there the last time... What a race that was between MSC and Alonso. Good times , much better than today (in general).

[TomNokoe]

I was hoping practice would be 2 hours, 90 mins is quite short.

 

I wonder if Alpha Tauri will have any advantage having tested here in pre-season. Similar to how Ferrari was quick out of the box at Mugello.

 

Will the cars be in low downforce trim again? It could shake up the order.

 

I hope F1 stream the 2005 race on YouTube in mid week, that would be a nice throwback.

 

62 laps is too short for this circuit, I wish we could have longer GPs nowadays.

Edited by TomNokoe, 25 October 2020 - 23:00.

[Ruusperi]

Looking forward to the weekend. Funnily enough, in the early 2000s Imola was widely considered rather bland circuit, but nowadays with so many tilkedromes and street races in the calendar it's just refreshing to see an old-school track with proper gravel traps. I think the race will be nothing like those snoozefests of the bygone era.

 

Sadly we'll only get 2,5h of track action before the race (given no red flags). I would rather have a double-header race here, and instead remove Abu Dhabi, to fill the 17 races quota.

 

Also, it's interesting that Kimi is the only driver that has raced on F1 here (though the layout isn't the same anymore). But who knows, maybe Alonso will get a chance in 2021, if the coronavirus disrupts next year's schedule.

 

Also also: since it's gonna be a bone dry weekend, the hopes of having a wet race this year seem to diminish. And people here predicted that October and November weather will definitely bring soaked conditions. Thanks for jinxing it

[ANF]

Some modern Imola footage to show what kind of action to expect on Sunday:

[noikeee]

Some modern Imola footage to show what kind of action to expect on Sunday:

https://www.youtube....h?v=Htk5_QlzLI8

The "pass" for the lead at 10:15

Edited by noikeee, 25 October 2020 - 23:36.

[FLB]

For me, Imola is also Riccardo Patrese going from this:

 

 

To this:

 

[Myrvold]

The "pass" for the lead at 10:15

 

Ye, that's the Touring Car version of "push to pass"

[Tiakumosan]

I never liked variante alta and bassa in games, but the track is awesome. Shame 1994 happened there.

[krapmeister]

 

The first GP i attended, it was 2005, and it was such an amazing experience. 
Back in the V10 days, i was a little kid, and i remember i could clearly hear the engines of the cars from 20 km's distance, as the sound was carried by the wind over the hills. 

 

 

I was there in 2005 as well! Amazing track, to be walking around such beautiful grounds and hear the V10s wailing in the background was an experience I will never forget  

 

Having no luck trying to upload some pics so y'all just have to believe me 

[HeadFirst]

After watching the Giro D'Italia the last three weeks, I am a little concerned about the weather on race day. Hope it's warm enough for the chosen tire compounds, and that we can avoid rain on race day. Great OP btw!

[William Hunt]

I always loved the track, which is quite technical and also faster as some suspect, well until that horror weekend in 1994 at least....

It's a track with a very nice flow.

 

For me it's not the same track anymore after they removed the old Tamburello, which was one of the most iconic (but also dangerous) corners in F1 and I also don't like what they did with the Villeneuve section, on the other hand the current Aqua Minerale section is better as in the old days. Another big cance was the removal of the Variante Bassa chicanes. 

Imola remains a classic track that's hard one the brakes and where F1 cars have higher fuel consumption, it's also anti-clockwise (Iike Interlagos & Austin) and that means that the drivers necks will suffer more as on other tracks. But one of the biggest plusses of racing at Imola is that the environment of the region is simply awesome. And let's be honest: who doesn't like racing in Italy? For me Italy should always have 2 GP's on the calendar (Monza and the other one alternating between Imola & Mugello would be ideal).

We've also seen some great races there in the past, in particular the 1985 edition was memorable with Stefan Johansson almost winning on his debut race for Ferrari, his car ran out of fuel. Elio de Angelis won that one in the Lotus ahead of Thierry Boutsen in the Arrows and Patrick Tambay in a Renault.

Edited by William Hunt, 26 October 2020 - 05:39.

[Hellenic tifosi]

The Tosa-Piratella-Acque Minerali section is one of my favourites in all racetracks.

Hopefully they can manage track limits on the outside of the latter part of Acque Minerali

Absolutely - this section is my favourite as well, Imola's equivalent to the Casanova-Savelli-Arrabiatta in Mugello.

My ideal F1 calendar would surely have two races in Italy, alternating between Monza, Imola and Mugello.

[William Hunt]

Riccardo Patrese, my favourite driver from that era, always went well at Imola. Off course in '83 he went off whilst leading (as the picture that someone posted illustrates) but long forgotten by many was that in '87 Patrese was the best performing driver during that race, he climbed all the way up the order (from 8th on the grid) until he was in second place, one of THE drives of the year in 1987 in a year that Brabham certainly didn't have such a great car,  but in the end his car let him down with a defect alternator 2 laps from the end, heart breaking. That drive probably earned him the Williams seat for '88.

[Pete_f1]

Red Bull have this!

[LiftAndCoast]

Italian circuits have the best corner names, hands down.

[Beri]

For me, Imola is the Tifosi. And just look at that picture. What an amazing picture it is with all those people in the background.

1994 has been addressed a couple of times. And it is worth noting that these days, the cars would have no real problems tackling the old Tamburello safely if a crash should happen there. Certainly when adding modern safety features like a SAFER barrier or Tecpro barriers. I just would have loved to see a complete and flat out run from Rivazza to Tosa.
But hey, Imola s back.. I can't complain. Except for overtakes. Which will be a difficult task.

[Hellenic tifosi]

Italian circuits have the best corner names, hands down.

 

I think most old school circuits have proper corner names

[Exumer]

Oh man, I still remember 2005. Michael trying to pass Fernando pretty much for the whole race. That race gave me false hope that Ferrari will fight back that year. Still, it was a fantastic race, edge of the seat stuff. 

[Baddoer]

Old school track but rather counterclockwise, without last chicane could be a few interesting slipstreaming battles down to turn 1.

[messy]

When they announced the new tracks etc this was the one that really excited me, because I’ve always loved Imola. It was the second F1 race I ever sat and watched through live, in 1998. Of all the ‘old school’ circuits from that era it’s the one I associate with the romanticism of being a kid falling in love with the sport, the green rolling hills, the daisies on the vivid green trackside, the ad hoardings, the kink at the end of the start-finish straight, the Tifosi up on the hills. Seeing F1 return after what, 15 years or so, is something I’m really looking forward to.

[Anuity]

Never particularly liked this track. As far as I remember since the early 90s most races were rather boring and unspectacular.

But after so many years it’s a nice addition if anything for its novelty on the calendar and history. But not expecting much in terms of racing.

[TheFish]

Hoping Lewis can add an extra circuit win to his collection to make that record a little harder to beat.

 

The lack of Friday running should also make it more interesting, should have a mixed up grid and hopefully some chaos in the race.

[sennamaster]

That Schumacher pole lap at Imola in 2006, was that considered to be his last ever pole lap or does the Monaco 2012 count 

[Anuity]

That Schumacher pole lap at Imola in 2006, was that considered to be his last ever pole lap or does the Monaco 2012 count

He got two more poles later on in 2006.

[thegamer23]

[sennamaster]

He got two more poles later on in 2006.

 

Ok, Imola pole was the one that broke the Senna pole record count 

[shure]

Nice intro 

 

I will correct one minor thing, though - Piquet's 1987 shunt had significant consequences.  He claimed that he'd lost up to 80% depth perception for a while and he was never the same driver again after that.  He was in and out of hospital in secret throughout 1987.  Imola effectively ended his career at the top

[Anja]

Having started watching F1 in 2007 I just missed the last time they raced here, so it's nice to have this chance to see some Imola action after all.

[RA2]

Amazing that Lewis ha never raced at Imola will make his f1 debut as the most successful driver at the track that killed his hero.

[thegamer23]

Amazing that Lewis ha never raced at Imola will make his f1 debut as the most successful driver at the track that killed his hero.

 

Indeed, should be quite an emotional weekend for him. 

Would be nice seeing him running a Senna-inspired tribute helmet. 

[Celloman]

Never particularly liked this track. As far as I remember since the early 90s most races were rather boring and unspectacular.

But after so many years it’s a nice addition if anything for its novelty on the calendar and history. But not expecting much in terms of racing.

They were, at least since the modified version was introduced in 1995. However, the main reason for that was the impossibility of overtaking. I reckon Schumacher passed Button in 2005 with a much faster car, but that's about it as far as overtakes go. However, the removal of the final chicane has now massively extended the start/finish straight, so in theory overtaking should be at least as possible as in the previous race.

[JeePee]

Never particularly liked this track. As far as I remember since the early 90s most races were rather boring and unspectacular.

But after so many years it’s a nice addition if anything for its novelty on the calendar and history. But not expecting much in terms of racing.

The track has changed quite a bit since the last time we got here. The new S/F straight has changed this circuit from high-downforce to medium-downforce also.

 

No whining about track limits either!

[RA2]

Maybe a banked tamburello will be made soon.

Edited by RA2, 26 October 2020 - 09:31.

[Goron3]

I was hoping practice would be 2 hours, 90 mins is quite short.

 

I wonder if Alpha Tauri will have any advantage having tested here in pre-season. Similar to how Ferrari was quick out of the box at Mugello.

 

Will the cars be in low downforce trim again? It could shake up the order.

 

I hope F1 stream the 2005 race on YouTube in mid week, that would be a nice throwback.

 

62 laps is too short for this circuit, I wish we could have longer GPs nowadays.

I fully expect Alpha to have a slight advantage. I also wouldn't be surprised if some of their circuit data was mysteriously passed on to Red Bull.

 

Only 90 minutes of practice on a green track. Will Bottas rise to the occasion? Limited practice in Germany seemed to help him.

Edited by Goron3, 26 October 2020 - 10:14.

[Beri]

Maybe a banked tamburello will be made soon.

 

Because that would make it just as safe as a normal Tamburello?

[LucaP]

The 2 real issues with overtaking are the variante Villeneuve and Variante Alta, that make passing in the following corner (Tosa and Rivazza respectively) quite hard

 

The issue with removing Villeneuve is that there is no space behind Tosa to extend the runoff should cars reach it with a higher speed. Tosa runoff is now 55 metres "deep"

 

However, I have never understood why they've never tried removing Variante Alta. After Acque Minerali, there would be a long 1.1 km straight leading to a hard braking at Rivazza..

Currently, the runoff area at Rivazza is 65 metres long (with houses behind it), however they could reprofile the corner moving it about 50 metres earlier (still a hard braking with 1 km straight before it..ideal for passing and no safety concerns)

 

Yes, I know I am planning changes while it's not my money that it's involved..but I think it makes sense 

Edited by LucaP, 26 October 2020 - 10:57.

[ExFlagMan]

Looks like some interesting launch pads on the apex of some of the corners.

 

Wonder how long the drivers will take before they complain?

[FLB]

This is pre-F1 Imola (featuring Helmut Marko) :

 

[Hellenic tifosi]

I always found Variante Alta spectacular, with the high kerbs sending the cars flying 

 

One of the very few chicanes that I actually liked

 

All in all, Imola has found it's character again.

[OO7]

Amazing that Lewis ha never raced at Imola will make his f1 debut as the most successful driver at the track that killed his hero.

He did race there in GP2, but got disqualified for overtaking the safety car.

[Viryfan]

Ocon, Leclerc,Latifi,Stroll,Verstappen ,Grosjean,Kvyat,Russell, Giovinazzi raced there

Edited by Viryfan, 26 October 2020 - 11:19.