Formula 1 teams will have just one practice session to acquaint themselves with Imola as part of a new two-day schedule, it’s been confirmed.
The event, which will be called the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, was one of three rounds recently announced for October, along with the Eifel GP at the Nurburgring and Portuguese GP at Portimao.
It’s confirmation also means a much-anticipated F1 return to Imola, 14 years after it last held the San Marino GP in 2006.
But with just a week between its race and that in the Algarve, some teams had voiced travel concerns across southern Europe, leading F1 to trial this shortened weekend format.
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And over the British GP weekend, the details of exactly how it will work were agreed, with a single 90-minute session at 10am on Saturday morning followed by qualifying at 2pm in the afternoon.
The race itself will then take place as normal on Sunday, though will start two hours earlier than normal at 1:10pm due to the much earlier sunset on November 1.
“Imola, [being a] two-day event, it’s obviously a new challenge for all of us, I think they’re still discussions ongoing about the detail of the format,” McLaren boss Andreas Seidl said last weekend before the timetable was agreed.
“I guess most likely we will simply end up having more practice time on Saturday morning because I think we should still have these two highlights with the qualifying on Saturday and then the other highlight on Sunday with the race.
“But of course the condensed programme is an additional challenge but it’s the same challenge for all and we’re actually looking forward to that challenge to see how we can cope with it best.”
