JANUARY 31, 2004

The end of the line for Imola

There is no big surprise in the announcement that Imola will not be holding a Grand Prix again after the race in 2004. The Italian circuit will make way for one of the new races, probably Turkey. The race has been in doubt for some time because the organisers cannot raise the funding necessary to do the work required to change the track and because there is increasing pressure on the Italians to drop one of their two races.

Imola has been a regular round of the World Championship for the last 23 years but its future has been in doubt consistently since the death of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna there 10 years ago.