Formula 1 has competed in a circuit hours after the passage of typhoons and hurricanes, but in recent times the cancellations of grand prizes have been the order of the day. Fundamentally due to the pandemic: in 2020 the Australian GP was canceled on the ground and that triggered a wave of postponements until the championship was resumed in the summer. So, the World Cup faced a liquid situation, the explosion of coronavirus cases, but this time the rival was literally the liquid element. The heavy rains in the Emilia Romagna region and the consequences of the floods forced this Wednesday to rule out the grand prix in Ímola at the weekend.
Is about the second cancellation of the season after the Chinese GP, suspended again due to the extreme requirements of the eastern country to cross its borders even in the pandemic. So the record calendar of 24 grand prix remains at 22 for now, and it will be difficult for it to increase. The Shanghai race left a gap of three weeks in April, the gap between the Australian and Azerbaijan Grands Prix. In the case of Ímola, we won’t have to wait that long: next week the Monaco GP will be held and seven days later, the Spanish GP in Montmeló. However, the European treble becomes a double.
Bahrain 2011 and the Japan typhoons
Beyond the pandemic, you had to go back to Bahrain 2011 to talk about a canceled grand prix. In that case it was due to political tension and popular revolts in the Gulf country. The weather, however, had not caused this kind of effect recently. In Japan 2019, the activity on the track was concentrated on Sunday to alleviate the effects of the passage of Typhoon Hagibis on Saturday, a quite common phenomenon in every October, when Formula 1 traditionally visits the country of the rising sun. Something similar happened in Austin 2015 due to Hurricane Patricia, which did not force the cancellation of the event.
The rain did alter, more recently, the 2021 Belgian GP: the race stayed in two laps after the safety car and half the points were distributed, to the logical anger of the fans who had endured stoically in some stands muddy But officially that race is part of the statistics like any other and in fact it had a huge impact on the World Cup: Verstappen ‘won’ and scored more points than Hamilton, third, which would later be decisive in a championship that was decided on the last lap. from Abu Dhabi. The 2023 Emilia Romagna GP, however, is already history.
