About the Imola Grand Prix weekend
Formula 1 enters the European part of the season, with the opening round held in Italy, at the Imola circuit. This venue delivered many historic events, such as the 2005 battle between Fernando Alonso, and Michael Schumacher, the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix, but also a lot of bitter days, like 1st of May 1994, when Ayrton Senna crashed his Williams and lost his life on track. This week, we’ll also see the return of Formula 2 and Formula 3.
a nEW OPENING
This year, most of the teams brought their first major upgrades for Imola. The last 2 weekends were sprint races, and it would be difficult to properly test every new part, so the upgrades have been scheduled for the Imola Grand Prix. From what we know, Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin brought some big changes, which can reshuffle the order of the grid completely. It’s hard to predict who will come out on top, but what we can expect is a busy session from the 1st minute of FP1 to the very last lap of FP3.
iMOLA gRAND pRIX sCHEDULE
fRIDAY, MAY 17TH
9:55 – 10:40 – Formula 3 Training Session
11:05 – 11:50 – Formula 2 Training Session
13:30 – 14:30 – Formula 1 Free Practice 1
15:05 – 15:35 – Formula 3 Qualifying
16:00 – 16:30 – Formula 2 Qualifying
17:00 – 18:00 – Formula 1 Free Practice 2
Saturday, May 18th
10:05 – 10:50 – Formula 3 Sprint Race
12:30 – 13:30 – Formula 1 Free Practice 3
14:15 – 15:05 – Formula 2 Sprint Race
16:00 – 17:00 – Formula 1 Qualifying
Sunday, May 19th
8:30 – 9:30 – Formula 3 Featured Race
10:00 – 11:10 – Formula 2 Featured Race
15:00 – 17:00 – Formula 1 Race
Imola Grand Prix Potential Strategy
Overtaking is extremely difficult on this track, even with a faster car and fresher tyres. In 2005, Michael Schumacher got stuck behind much slower Fernando Alonso, who held on to secure the race win against the odds. In 2021, George Russel crashed with Bottas when trying to overtake him, as he run out of space, touched the grass and collected the Mercedes driver into the gravel. Most of the teams will be doing a one stop strategy, to minimize the risk of being stuck in traffic. There is some potential rain forecast, which could turn the grid upside down, just like in the 2021 race.
F1Blast team prediction
In this section, we’ll be presenting our 5 predictions for the race, based on the knowledge and experience. We encourage you to share your predictions in the comments.
1. Sargeant bins his car
2. Leclerc outqualifies Perez
3. Someone will get a grid penalty for impeding during qualifying
4. One of the drivers will be beached in gravel before the end of lap 1
5. Someone from outside the top5 teams will finish in P6 or higher