Mark Hughes: 'Farewell Imola, you don't belong in today's tamed F1 era'

The pandemic gave Imola a reprieve and it was lovely to go back to the picturesque park from 2021 until last weekend, back to a place which had last hosted a grand prix in 2006. But for now, that’s it. No more grands prix there as more lucrative races are filling the calendar.

Current cars make for a dramatic sight on a circuit which is in reality a little too narrow and with too many hazards for the speeds being reached. Yuki Tsunoda’s qualifying accident was testimony enough to that, the Red Bull landing atop a barrier when already upside down. The cars are immensely safe now, but using up that margin by racing on a track of previous era safety standards made it feel like F1 was beginning to push its luck a little.

There was, in fact, something very dissonant about 21st-century F1 on a 20th-century track. It sometimes clanged like a cracked bell. Take, for example, the late-race clash at Tamburello chicane between Charles Leclerc and Alexander Albon, whereby the Williams clattered across the gravel attempting to go around the Ferrari’s outside. Contrast it with the 1990 incident just a few hundred metres further up the track between Gerhard Berger and Nigel Mansell, which somehow matched the surroundings in its raw beauty and epic scale.

Berger’s McLaren was leading the race at around half-distance but Mansell’s Ferrari was closing, closing, closing and the crowd was stirring. Whenever Mansell was involved in such situations, you knew something dramatic was probably going to happen. His dander was up, he’d passed team-mate Alain Prost early on, and the Italian crowd loved him. The perfect setting for Mansell as the Ferrari, visibly on the limit, closed down the gap.

Through the pre-chicane Tamburello, flat in top, Mansell had the Ferrari’s nose almost touching the McLaren and as they exited the left-hander onto the straight down to Villeneuve, he moved to the left. Berger eased left to dissuade him but Mansell kept coming. So Berger kept easing further left, a dangerous move but based on a belief that no way would Mansell be mad enough to stay committed at the speed they were going. But this was Mansell and he was in one of those red zone moods.

He kept closing, foot to the floor, until there was no more race track left and he took to the dusty grass. The Ferrari went into a long, looping spin within the width of the grass, narrowly missing an earlier-abandoned car. He’d just about completed the 360-degree spin as he rejoined the track, having regained control through raw, instinctive skill.

Because the spin had been mainly on the grass, his tyres were not flat-spotted. He set off in pursuit of Berger once more and on his first flying lap after the spin was the fastest of the race so far! Probably to Berger’s immense relief, Mansell was forced to retire with an overheating engine, the radiator inlets blocked with grass from the spin.

Last Sunday, the fresh-tyred Albon was closing fast on the very old-tyred Ferrari of Leclerc. He’d got alongside once at the end of the DRS zone going into the Tamburello chicane. This time, he got the run going earlier and was ahead, but on the outside, as they entered the braking zone at around 190mph.

There are guidelines for what the drivers should do in such situations now, which they need to know and to race accordingly. If they don’t race according to the guidelines – written down, no longer just some accepted code between the drivers – they’ll probably be penalised. So at 190mph into a hard braking zone, Leclerc has to try to ensure his front axle is ahead of Albon’s at the apex. Thereafter, the corner is his. If not, he must give Albon room.