The Emilia Romagna GP, the thirteenth round of the 2020 World Championship, will be held next Sunday behind closed doors.
After 14 years of absence, the return of Formula 1 to Imola will be reduced to just two days, since free practice will be moved to Saturday, in a single morning session.
The World Motor Council of the International Federation (FIA) approved this Thursday the changes in the regulations for F1 to celebrate its first grand prix in such a compact format.
In this way, the usual activity on the track on Fridays will be totally canceled and we will have to wait until Saturday morning to hear the roar of the cars.
Free practice will start at 10:00 am and will last 90 minutes.
During the break prior to qualifying, which will start at 2:00 pm, the drivers will hold a briefing with
Michael Masi
, race director, to discuss their first sensations at the Enzo e Dino Ferrari Autodrome.
Less tires
Mario Isola
, boss of Pirelli, the sole supplier of the World Championship, confirmed that the drivers will have 10 sets of tires, instead of the usual 13 (six of the soft compound, two of the medium and two of the hard).
"Not riding on Friday will be an interesting challenge, as there will be limited time to become familiar with the circuit before qualifying and less data to analyze," said
Carlos Sainz
, who intends to improve his tenth place in the World Championship in Imola.
In the McLaren driver's opinion, this novelty introduced by Liberty Media, the company that owns the business, is better understood in this 2020 World Championship, reduced to 17 races.
"Fridays make sense as long as the number of races is reasonable," settled the Madrilenian.
Schumacher's triumph
The Emilia Romagna GP will be the first third race on the calendar to be held this year on Italian territory.
On September 6, the Monza circuit hosted the Italian GP and just a week later, the Mugello circuit was the scene of the Tuscan GP.
In both races, unlike Imola, the presence of a small number of fans was admitted.
The last F1 race at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, held in 2006, was won by
Michael Schumacher
, who took the podium accompanied by
Fernando Alonso
and
Juan Pablo Montoya
.
A year earlier, at the 2005 San Marino GP, the Asturian had starred in one of the best performances of his life, with an epic victory after enduring the onslaught of El Kaiser during the last 11 laps.
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