After the decision to cancel the GP, an improvement in the weather is expected for the transfer to Monte Carlo, where the races will already take place next week. Meanwhile, Aci and TicketOne are contacting nominal ticket holders and agencies for refunds
Already yesterday morning, at 10.01, the FIA had sent a communication to the accredited teams and professionals: “Due to the situation in Imola, please do not go to the circuit, the Media Center or the Accreditation Center today”. It was starting to feel like the situation was getting worse. The bulk of Ferrari, so to speak, remained in Maranello. Only the team responsible for setting up the garage and hospitality, about twenty people in all, had reached Imola in recent days. A part of which, moreover, as usual between Wednesday and Thursday, had also already returned to headquarters. However, without the usual turnover with the team, given that the flooded paddock remained closed throughout yesterday. And only today, if conditions permit, will the various teams be able to access the facilities again. Not to enliven the circuit, however, rather for the typical tasks after the GP.
more comfortable
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The times foreseen if the program had been respected were stretched. Already on Sunday evening we would have witnessed the usual post-race frenzy typical of double-headers, that is when there are two grands prix on successive weekends. It usually happens that with the riders still on the podium or in the press conference, in the pit lane and in the paddock there is a coming and going of forklifts and vehicles of all kinds loading hastily assembled bins of material. Between Sunday night and Monday morning the employees would have had to rush to transfer everything to Monte Carlo, with the prospect of starting all over again there, given that this is even a triple-header: on the weekend after Monaco there is already the Spanish GP at Montmelò. So from today – hopefully – everything can be done more easily. But nobody is happy about it.
shortened season
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And then no running. Decision that has a precedent in the World Championship (Silverstone 2018; Qatar 2009 was postponed to Monday), not in F.1, not due to rain. He witnessed shortened GPs, only 31 laps in both Montecarlo 1984 and Malaysia 2009; at the farce of Spa 2021, with 2 laps behind Safety; three editions of Suzuka (2004, 2010, 2019) without Saturday, with qualifying on Sunday morning. This time, however, the GP is skipped, and the season is “shortened” again: from 24 to 22 races (Shanghai forfeit). It is unlikely to reposition Imola in 2023. Which instead is already in the 2024 and 2025 calendars. “Given the solidarity and agreement on the part of everyone – concluded Benvenuti – it is to be assumed that recovery will take place in 2026”. Meanwhile Aci and TicketOne are contacting nominal ticket holders and agencies for refunds.