In the round-up: Next month’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix is expected to be unaffected by the late-running building work at the Imola circuit which was blamed for the cancellation of a European Le Mans Series race yesterday.
In brief
F1 not expecting ongoing Imola upgrades to put May’s race at risk
The second round of the ELMS at Imola, which was due to go ahead on May 7th, has been cancelled. The organisers announced yesterday the Imola Four Hours had been “postponed”, but did not state when the race will go ahead, adding they are “urgently working to find an alternative solution with the circuit management and competitors.”
“The improvement works to the paddock and garage complex at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari were due to have been completed by the middle of April, but delays to the project mean the circuit won’t be ready to receive the teams from the European Le Mans Series, Michelin Le Mans Cup, Ligier European Series and Lamborghini Super Trofeo as planned,” they explained.
RaceFans understands the circuit’s building works – which are primarily in the paddock and garage complex – are not expect to present a problem for the grand prix, which takes place two weeks later.
F1 Academy testing gets underway
The new F1 Academy series for female drivers conducted its first track action at the Circuit de Catalunya yesterday.
A morning and an afternoon test session took place for the 15 drivers taking part in the series, which uses Formula 4 cars. Former W Series racer Marta Garcia was fastest overall for Prema by 0.128 seconds over MP Motorsport’s Amna Al Qubaisi.
The drivers will be back on track for two more sessions today, before the series’ first ever races take place on 29th April at the Red Bull Ring
Ex-F1 driver Nicola Larini’s son to make car racing debut
Davide Larini, the son of former F1 driver and DTM champion Nicola, will make his single-seater racing debut later this month in the Italian Formula 4 championship at Imola.
His father’s Larini’s F1 career spanned eight seasons. After several years of driving cars which he often failed to qualify for races in he was then picked up by Ferrari as a development driver for their cars and he was handed four race starts with them.
The highlight of his F1 career came in that fourth race as he not only scored his first points but made the podium in second place at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.
His son was runner-up in last year’s Italian championship…
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