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The Tannoys are silent today. Perched on top of tall white poles, like seagulls on street lights, they wait to shout to a crowd that will never arrive - not to watch Formula 1 cars anyway. Deserted grandstands, a dormant track, row upon row of empty wooden benches mounted on the parkland banking that surrounds the circuit: this is Imola in winter, 10 years after it last hosted a grand prix.
Routine maintenance goes on around the fringes: there is paintwork to be touched in, verges and run-off areas to tend and, more substantially, a media centre under construction to complement the swish new circuit offices and museum that were erected in 2008. But it sure is quiet at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari: even a leaf blowing across the Tarmac is loud enough to be heard.
It's one of those ultra-high-def days that combine sharp winter chills with razzle-dazzle sunlight. Everything is turned up to 11: the sky a deeper blue, the track surface that bit more granular, the rushing of water through a weir on the Santerno River a touch louder in the background.
