Autosport Plus

The great unheralded Imola F1 drives

The return of Imola to the Formula 1 calendar for this weekend's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix provides an opportunity to assess some of its less-remembered but still noteworthy drives. Autosport highlights those which have been forgotten by history

James Newbold Oct 27, 2020, 3:51 PM

Imola will forever be remembered for the black weekend in 1994 that claimed the lives of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger that resulted in sweeping changes to Formula 1 safety. But for 27 consecutive years between 1980 and 2006, when it was a staple of the F1 calendar, it also had a reputation as a tough nut to crack that was especially hard on fuel and engines.

After hosting non-championship grands prix in 1963 and 1979 (the Imola GP won by Jim Clark and the Dino Ferrari GP by Niki Lauda), it briefly took the Italian GP away from Monza in 1980 before becoming a permanent fixture as the home of the San Marino GP the following year.

Share Or Save This Story

Author James Newbold

James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.

In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.

After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award. He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.

A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual or niche, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.

He lives with his wife and children in Plymouth, England.