Welcome to the 2021 Formula One Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Time to get your predications and votes in and discuss the upcoming GP!
With the new year underway, the teams return to Imola for the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton won here at the unexpected but welcome event that featured on last year's calendar, after the track made itself available to help F1 host as full a season as possible. With Alonso returning to the sport, that makes two drivers on the grid that have won at Imola, albeit 15 years apart and on different layouts.
This classic circuit can be unforgiving, with plenty of gravel traps ready to catch drivers out. While it's a fairly small track by modern F1 standards, it features plenty of long radius medium speed corners. This should make for a good test of how the teams' new challengers are coping with less rear downforce than their predecessors. To aid overtaking, the DRS zone on the main straight has been extended by 60 metres.
Friday and Saturday should be dry, although with much colder weather than the teams experienced in Bahrain. It will be interesting to see whether the cooler conditions allow any of the teams to squeeze a few more horses from their new power units. More enticingly, current forecasts suggest a good chance that rain will affect Sunday's race. It's always fun to see which way teams go on setup when they don't get to experience representative conditions before race day, or more to the point, who gets it right and who does not!
After a battle that kept us on the edge of our seats in Bahrain, the thought of Hamilton and Verstappen resuming their championship fight around a rainy Imola is a very exciting one indeed. It's a difficult one to call between them, with both having already shown top form at race one. Perhaps a deciding factor could be whether Mercedes have gotten on top of their rear stability issues yet. If they are yet to do so, and Sunday is indeed affected by rain, then that could prove challenging for the Silver Arrows.
Let us know what you're looking forward to about this weekend, and don't forget to back your favourite for the win in our poll!
With the new year underway, the teams return to Imola for the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton won here at the unexpected but welcome event that featured on last year's calendar, after the track made itself available to help F1 host as full a season as possible. With Alonso returning to the sport, that makes two drivers on the grid that have won at Imola, albeit 15 years apart and on different layouts.
This classic circuit can be unforgiving, with plenty of gravel traps ready to catch drivers out. While it's a fairly small track by modern F1 standards, it features plenty of long radius medium speed corners. This should make for a good test of how the teams' new challengers are coping with less rear downforce than their predecessors. To aid overtaking, the DRS zone on the main straight has been extended by 60 metres.
Friday and Saturday should be dry, although with much colder weather than the teams experienced in Bahrain. It will be interesting to see whether the cooler conditions allow any of the teams to squeeze a few more horses from their new power units. More enticingly, current forecasts suggest a good chance that rain will affect Sunday's race. It's always fun to see which way teams go on setup when they don't get to experience representative conditions before race day, or more to the point, who gets it right and who does not!
After a battle that kept us on the edge of our seats in Bahrain, the thought of Hamilton and Verstappen resuming their championship fight around a rainy Imola is a very exciting one indeed. It's a difficult one to call between them, with both having already shown top form at race one. Perhaps a deciding factor could be whether Mercedes have gotten on top of their rear stability issues yet. If they are yet to do so, and Sunday is indeed affected by rain, then that could prove challenging for the Silver Arrows.
Let us know what you're looking forward to about this weekend, and don't forget to back your favourite for the win in our poll!
