Imola GP 2024: next round from the F1 registered 2024. Seventh world championship event where the Ferrari will present the SF-24 EVO, car that will be tested in these days in Fiorano via the filming day. A truly tempting opportunity to “build” the set-up in view of next weekend with the updates on board. The first quarter of the season therefore ended with the beautiful and deserved success of Lando Norris to You love me. A start to the world championship that is proving to be more interesting than in the recent past, despite Red Bull remains the team to beat.
Just enough time to take a breather, a week, before the start of the European football season F1 which, as mentioned, will take shape from next weekend on the banks of the Santerno, in the historic route named after “Enzo and Dino Ferrari“. After the event was canceled last year due to the tragic flood that hit Emilia Romagnathe “Motor Valley” of Beautiful country is ready to welcome the Circus with trepidation. The debut of the first major update package in F1 for the prancing Horse fuels the ambitions of fan of the historic Modena stable.
A further novelty will be the return of gravel to the race track.Emilia Romagna which, on this occasion, will leave the asphalt in three specific points of the route: at Piratellaat Mineral Waters and to Gresini variant. A measure already appreciated during the world championship stage WEC which, finally, seems to remedy the atavistic problem of track limits. We are therefore talking about a clear return to the past, broadcast through a healthy realism that does not compromise the safety of the system at all.
In the first of the two Grand Prizes which will take place in ItalyTherefore, there will not be the usual rapid penalties and video reviews to ascertain a smudge of a few millimeters not detected by the sensors. The various pilots of the F1therefore, they will be able to take advantage of a Imola some extra centimeter beyond the curbs, aware however that an excess of confidence could have disastrous consequences on the flying lap or during the race. A compromise that will certainly be appreciated by the riders and which was immediately welcomed by fans on social media network.
F1, Imola: the past is not necessarily outdated or wrong
The gravel has disappeared in the slopes of F1 to leave room for huge asphalt escape routes, considered a trigger for car rollovers thrown off the track at high speed. However, the potential problem is not always valid, as it is functional to the geometry and dynamics of the curves of a possible off-piste. More gravel in Imola will allow a selection based on the sensitivity of the drivers, between those who will be willing to take risks when the asphalt ends versus those who will take their foot off the accelerator.
The use of track limit through the sensors scattered throughout the asphalt it does not prevent the pilots from pushing, because the price to be paid in the event of an error is all in all negligible. At most, anyone who goes beyond the limit is detected and there is no risk of the car getting covered up or retiring during the race. With gravel, the extra centimeter makes the difference between a perfect lap, an awkward spin or even a cover-up and subsequent retirement. In this sense, the FIA will have to take into account this sort of return to a specific “old style” of the Italian track.
Many circuits of F1 on the calendar, Red Bull Ring in first of all, have a desperate need to offer a show worthy of the category, without dozens of sanctions during a single race due to exceeding track limits, even in the face of obvious driving errors. A return to the past that demonstrates how some solutions of recent years do not necessarily have to be obsolete or anachronistic. A simplification that a Imola will avoid controversies on the validity of a session e it will be up to the pilots’ skill to know how to take advantage or pay dearly for exceeding the physical limit of the track.
Author: Roberto Cecere – @robertofunoat
Images: Scuderia Ferrari
