Formula 1: Imola boasts something no other track can say

As Formula 1 races at Imola for only the third time since 2006, the track can say something that no other track on the 2022 schedule can say.

Imola, officially known as Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, appeared annually on the Formula 1 calendar from 1980 to 2006. But it took the COVID-19 pandemic for it to return in 2020, when it served as a replacement track amid numerous other cancellations.

Yet despite the fact that nobody ever would have initially anticipated a 2020 return, the circuit is now back to hosting an annual race, the full name of which we won’t waste your time spelling out; just call it the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix (or, better yet, the San Marino Grand Prix).

As Formula 1 prepares for just its third race at the 21-turn, 3.05-mile (4.908-kilometer) road course in Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy in the last decade and a half, the track can already say something that no other track on the schedule can say.

It is the only track at which the winners in 2020 and 2021 went on to win the world championship.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton won the race in 2020 before going on to win a record-tying seventh world title, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won it last year before going on to win his first.

Now, there are some caveats to this, two to be specific.

You could technically make the same claim about the Red Bull Ring and Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. But neither of those claims would truly be 100% accurate.

Let’s start with Austria.

In both the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the Red Bull Ring hosted two races, the Styrian Grand Prix, a COVID-19 replacement event, and the annual Austrian Grand Prix. While Verstappen won both races in 2021, the races were split in 2020, with one won by Valtteri Bottas and the other won by Hamilton.

While Hamilton did win there two years ago, so did Bottas, and he didn’t win the world title. Plus, to be super technical, Bottas scored more points than Hamilton over those two events. So it wouldn’t be completely accurate to put this track in the same category as Imola here.

Now for Belgium.

Hamilton did win the race in 2020, and Verstappen did win in 2021. But Verstappen won in 2021 simply by qualifying on pole. The Belgian Grand Prix, for all intents and purposes, wasn’t actually run. The field simply did two laps behind the safety car just so half-points could be awarded, and everyone went home happy (not). So, again, it wouldn’t be completely accurate to put this track in the same category as Imola.

Verstappen won six other races in 2021, and only one of them was actually run in 2020. He won the Monaco Grand Prix, the French Grand Prix, the Dutch Grand Prix, the United States Grand Prix, the Mexican Grand Prix, and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Only the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was run in 2020, and he won it then as well, despite not winning the world title.

So what does that say about this weekend’s 63-lap race? Will the winner go on to win the world championship for the third time in three years?

Notably, there is a 21-lap sprint qualifying race before the main event, something there has never been before at the track, so that could throw an interesting twist into the equation.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is set to be broadcast live from Imola beginning at 8:55 a.m. ET on ESPN this Sunday, April 24. Be sure not to miss it, and don’t miss today’s knockout qualifying session (10:55 a.m. ET, ESPN2) or tomorrow’s sprint race (10:25 a.m. ET, ESPN) either. Start your free trial of FuboTV now!