The history of the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari… Imola Circuit

In the Spring of 1948, Enzo Ferrari looked at the area surrounding the small town of Imola and told a group of promoters that this is the perfect place for a racetrack. Five years later, the Autodromo di Imola, as it was known then, held its first motor racing event. When Enzo Ferrari’s son, Dino Ferrari, died in 1956, the track was renamed the Autodromo Dino Ferrari.

It would be another 10 years until a Formula One race was held there, a non-championship race, and it wasn’t until 1980 that it held its first Grand Prix – the Italian Grand Prix, taking over from the Monza circuit. The race was such a hit that for the 1981 season the San Marino Grand Prix was created, specifically to have a race at the Autodromo Dino Ferrari.

In 1988, following the death of Enzo, the track was again renamed to the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. In that year’s San Marino Grand Prix, Gerhard Berger was involved in a crash at Tamburello after a front wing failure, which saw him escape with only minor injuries after his car burst into flames.

The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix will forever be remembered as one of the most tragic weekends in the history of sport. On the Friday practice, Rubens Barrichello suffered severe concussion after a collision at the Variante Bassa chicane. The next day, Roland Ratzenberger was killed after he crashed into a concrete wall at Villeneuve Corner. During the race, eight spectators were injured following a collision at the start and on lap seven, racing legend Ayrton Senna was killed instantly when he was hit by debris after coming off the track at Tamburello.

There hadn’t been any fatalities at a Formula One race meeting for twelve years, and then two at one Grand Prix. Major revisions swept through the sport.

At Imola, the flat out Tamburello corner and Villeneuve corner were altered into slower chicanes, while the kerbs at the Variante Alta chicane were lowered to comply with the constant safety concerns.

The San Marino Grand Prix was dropped from the Formula One calendar in 2007 – and it hasn’t featured since. However, the Imola racetrack made a return to the F1 schedule in 2020 when alternative venues were required during the COVID pandemic, and since then it has featured under the name of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – named after the Emilia Romagna region of Italy. Lewis Hamilton won the inaugural race.