Following concerns about the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari being flooded by the swollen Santerno river, authorities had barred anyone from F1 entering the circuit from Tuesday afternoon.
Rising water levels and widespread flooding triggered by extreme weather in the region subsequently prompted the cancellation of this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix just days before track action was due to begin.
OPINION: In the shadows of Melbourne and Spa, F1 does the right thing over Imola
But while the rising river did encroach lower lying areas of the track, including the F2 paddock and F1’s TV compound, the main pits and paddock escaped the worst of it.
However, with F1 on a tight schedule to get out of Imola and get things built up for next weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, there was still some time pressure to get things moving – especially as some Italian roads remain closed to journey times will likely increase.
The demand not to enter the track was valid throughout Wednesday but on Thursday morning, as the weather situation eased, it was agreed that staff that were essential to the de-rigging of team equipment could enter.
This will allow any team garages, motorhomes and other facilities that had been put up early this week to get packed away, so then arrangements for the drive to Monaco can be sorted.
With work now underway at Imola, F1 has no concerns that there will be any consequences from the race cancellation on next weekend’s Monaco GP.
While not all team personnel had arrived in Italy ahead of the race, those that did make it before news of the cancellation came through will have returned home.
Teams will then have had to re-arrange transport arrangements to get them to Monaco, with trucks sets to go directly to the principality from Italy.
Monaco was originally going to be the second race of an intense triple header, but will now form the first part of what will be a double-header with the Spanish Grand Prix that takes place on 4 June.
F1 is still evaluating whether or not the Emilia Romagna GP can be rescheduled for later in the year, but the compressed nature of the calendar leaves little opportunity for it.
