2024 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix 
Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari - Imola | Imola | Italy | Sunday, 19 May
2024 F1 Season - Round 7 (Grand Prix 7 of 24)
Officially, it’s the Formula 1 MSC Cruises Gran Premio Del Made In Italy e Dell’Emilia-Romagna 2024. Unofficially, it’s the 2024 Imola Grand Prix, or even the Emilia-Romagna GP. Either way, it’s the first European grand prix of the season, and a welcome return to Ferrari’s eponymous home circuit and to the region that suffered greatly from heavy flood damage last year.
Just the Facts
- First Grand Prix – 1980 (Imola held the Italian Grand Prix in 1980, the San Marino Grand Prix from 1981-2006, and the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix from 2020 onwards)
- Track Length – 4.909km
- Lap Record – 1m 15.484s, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 2020
- Most Pole Positions – Ayrton Senna (8)
- Most Wins – Michael Schumacher (7)
- Pole to Turn 1 Braking Point – 553 metres
- Overtakes Completed in 2022 – 55
- Safety Car Probability – 100%
- Virtual Safety Car Probability – 33%
- Pit Stop Time Loss – 29.01 seconds
Last Race (2022)
- Pole Position: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT, 1:27.999
- Fastest Race Lap: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT, 1:18.446
2022 Podium
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT
- Sergio PĂ©rez, Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT
- Lando Norris, McLaren-Mercedes
The Schedule
Hooray! Back to sensible times for a Grand Prix weekend!
The Circuit
Jolyon Palmer, former Renault F1 driver: Imola is a fantastic circuit. It’s steeped in history, and you feel that as you’re driving around it. It’s punishing – short run-offs of grass and gravel – so there’s not a lot of room for error, and plenty of tough corners as well.
The chicanes early on are probably slightly more straightforward than some of the other parts. Piratella is quite quick, blind towards the exit as well, and that can be a track limits issue if you drop too far wide out of there. And the fact is, a lot of the track is quite tricky.
Acqua Minerale is tough as you have to make sure not to carry too much speed into Turn 12, and then you have to get the kerbs right at Variante Alta. If you avoid the kerbs too much you lose performance, so it’s threading the eye of the needle through the kerbs, trying to get maximum performance, but not bouncing the car towards the wall, which is quite close on the exit.
And again braking for Turn 17 catches you out very easily, particularly early on in practice when you get used to it, because it’s quite steep and there’s gravel on the outside. It just lures you to brake too late. This is a classic challenge and a favourite for fans and drivers.
The Weather Forecast
After last year’s catastrophic rains and flooding in the Emilia Romagna region, there’ll be a lot of wary eyes kept on the weather forecast for the weekend. Here’s how things look at the moment, with the probability for a full wet Sunday race currently increasing.
As it stands, the early weekend running is set to take place in dry and pleasant conditions, with further sunshine expected in the build-up to the race but also a small, developing threat of showers as the afternoon wears on.
The Tyres
The Formula 1 World Championship returns to Europe over eight months on from the previous Grand Prix to be held on the Old Continent and in the same country, Italy, that hosted that race in Monza on 3rd September last. In fact, Italy has hosted a total of 105 world championship Grands Prix, the most of any country, 30 of them at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola.
This weekend’s race is only the fourth edition of the Gran Premio dell’Emilia-Romagna e del Made in Italy, previously held from 2020 to 2022, as last year’s event had to be cancelled because of floods that hit large parts of the region, causing some fatalities and devastation.
For the seventh round of the season, Pirelli has gone with the softest trio of dry tyre compounds: C3 as Hard, C4 as Medium and C5 as Soft. It will be the first time this trio will be put to the test at the Emilian track, although it was to have been the choice for last year’s cancelled event. In 2022, the selected compounds were C2, C3 and C4.
Imola is one of the oldest fixtures on the championship calendar, known for being very technical and therefore highlighting the skills of the drivers who have to tackle quite complex combinations of corners and braking zones. Enzo Ferrari was one of the promoters of the project to build a circuit on the hills around Imola and he described it as a sort of “little Nurburgring.” Orginally, in 1957, the venue was named in memory of his son Dino, his own name being added after his death in 1988.
The track is not particularly hard in terms of the forces exerted on the tyres, even if the asphalt is still relatively abrasive, despite the fact that the last time resurfacing work was carried out on 70% of its almost five kilometre length dates back to 2011. With a busy programme of track action over the Grand Prix weekend, the road surface offers a good level of grip that increases the more the cars run.
With 19 corners (10 to the left and 9 to the right) and a significant 30 metre elevation change from the highest point to the lowest, the track is rather narrow and there is only one DRS zone, making overtaking far from easy. Therefore, qualifying plays an important part in deciding the outcome of the race, which explains why it has never been won from lower than fifth on the grid and 19 times out of 30, the driver first past the chequered flag had started from the front row.
More News and Info
There’s more happening at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari this weekend that’s worth knowing, including the return of the Formula 2 and Formula 3 championships and inspiring initiatives in the F1 paddock…
Formula 2 is back, having last raced on the Australian Grand Prix weekend. Isack Hadjar and Campos Racing became the latest victors of 2024 in Melbourne, but it’s Zane Maloney and Rodin Motorsport that remain the combination to beat heading to Imola. The Barbadian Sauber Academy racer tops the drivers’ standings on 62 points, with Rodin topping the teams’ table on 78 points.
Formula 3 also returns to Imola this weekend after a visit Down Under, where PREMA Racing’s Dino Beganovic took victory in the Feature Race. PREMA stand alone atop the teams’ standings with 83 points, but it’s tight at the top of the drivers’ championship. Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Luke Browning and Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli are both on 37 points after the opening two rounds.
Stay on top of it all over on the official F1 site: Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix 2024 - Italian F1 Race, Imola (formula1.com)
The F1 Digital Programme is also back for the European season.
Designed to be used on mobile devices, use the newly updated mobile app for the best experience.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dcodax.f1raceprogramme
Alternatively, you can try the Online browser viewer, but again, go with a mobile phone option if you’re able - desktop isn’t even loading for me any more.