F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix: Imola GP Cancelled Due to Severe Flooding
With the Santerno river threatening to flood the Imola track on Tuesday, F1 workers were told to evacuate the area. Matteo Salvini, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport urged the postponement of the Emilia Romagna GP.
By Divyam Dubey
The devastating floods in northern Italy this week forced the cancellation of this weekend's Grand Prix in Emilia-Romagna. After consultation with Italian government officials, Formula One stated it took the decision for safety concerns and to avoid placing an undue pressure on emergency services. F1 published a statement confirming the news, saying, "the decision has been taken because it is not possible to safely hold the event for our fans, the teams, and our personnel and it is the right and responsible thing to do given the situation faced by the towns and cities in the region." Extra stress on the local government and emergency services at this time would be inappropriate. There have been severe flood and landslip warnings in the Emilia Romagna area, where the event takes place. This is the second round of bad weather in as many weeks to slam this region.
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The Emilia-Romagna area had widespread flooding, prompting officials to warn Formula One staff to stay away from the circuit. Some people in the neighbouring city of Imola were urged to evacuate to higher levels. The track is next to the Santerno River.
Italy's infrastructure minister, Matteo Salvini, asked for the race to be postponed so that more relief could be sent to the districts struck worst by the water.
This nullifies the second scheduled race for the year 2023. Pandemic fears forced organisers to postpone the Chinese Grand Prix, originally planned for April.
Since rescheduling the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix is very improbable due to Formula One's already jam-packed schedule, the 2018 season will include 22 events, the same number as in 2023.
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The AlphaTauri team, located in close proximity to Faenza and hence the circuit, made a charity appeal on Wednesday to aid the local community.
There were supposed to be four races in as many weeks beginning with the Emilia-Romagna GP. On May 28 is the Grand Prix of Monaco, and a week later on June 4 is the Spanish GP.
