The season’s first round of European racing was a foregone conclusion after extreme rainfall caused severe flooding across the Emilia-Romagna region, including parts of the Imola paddock. Wednesday’s decision to cancel this weekend’s races follows tense negotiations between F1, the FIA ​​and local authorities, so all focus can be on restoring infrastructure and opening up medical services to help affected communities.

The official F1 statement reads: “After discussions between Formula 1, the President of the FIA, the competent authorities including relevant ministers, the President of the Automobile Club of Italy, the President of the Emilia-Romagna Region, the mayor and the promoters, it has been decided not to Continuing with the Grand Prix weekend at Imola.

“This decision was taken because it was impossible to hold games safely for our fans, the team and our staff, and it was the right and responsible thing to do given the circumstances facing towns and cities in the region. This will be done in these difficult times. It is wrong to put further pressure on local authorities and emergency services.”

As usual, the wording of the F1 press release referred to the decision to “not proceed” with this weekend’s event, rather than any hint of cancellation.

This particular wording, albeit for contractual reasons, opens the door for Imola to delay rather than cancel and delay until 2024. But a look at the rest of the 2023 calendar shows that Imola is highly unlikely to find a spot elsewhere.

The frenzied June-July races before the summer break are out of the question, as the only time slots are July 16, in Austria-UK (July 2-9) and Hungary-Belgium (23-9). ) back-to-back in the one-week gap between July 30 and created an impossible five-peat.

Moving the second half of the quarter forward by a week is also not an option as factories will be closed for the summer shutdown and most employees have already scheduled well-deserved furloughs, so the period will run until the end of August.

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Photography: Gold and Goose/ motorsport pictures

Pairing Imola with Monza in September might have been a logical emergency solution in a more structured schedule, but in this case it would be another five back-to-back winning streak, From Zandvoort on the last weekend of August, F1 travels to Singapore and Japan for four races in five weeks.

With September’s Singapore and Suzuka rounds running concurrently, there’s no avoiding a four-peat in Qatar in early October.

A dreadful existing trifecta between Austin, Mexico and Brazil in late October and early November has robbed Imola of any distant chances until mid-November, when the weather in Emilia-Romagna starts to get too cold .

Regardless, the Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi duo, whose season ends in November, would rule out a November 11 vacant date because that would create six games on the trot.

Considering how much the 2023 season has been brought forward, it is too late to organize a date change for one of the aforementioned races.

With the Imola event canceled due to force majeure, there is likely little interest in overtaking and the most likely outcome is a simple ticket refund.

That means fans will have to wait until 2024 to flock to the historic F1 venue for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the penultimate year of Imola’s contract, which expires at the end of 2025.

However, as a result of this week’s events, it is not out of the question that Imola’s current three-year contract, signed only last year, will be moved up a year.