Mercedes’ Toto Wolff talks about Imola, says he is excited to watch Lewis’ journey

Looking ahead to Round 13 of the 2020 season, as Formula One makes a return to Imola

Imola, 30 October 2020: Round 13 of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship takes teams and drivers to Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola’s Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

F1 has not visited the famous Italian circuit since it hosted the San Marino Grand Prix in 2006. A highly-technical track with a wide range of corners, the narrow bumpy Imola circuit could not present a more different challenge to the wide smooth surface at Portimao, last weekend. A generation of drivers, however, will have to get up to speed quickly, with just one 90-minute Practice session on Saturday, two hours ahead of the qualifying session. Friday is off, to give more time for the teams and staff to arrive at the circuit and both the Practice sessions were called off, merged into one 90-min session on Saturday. Race day schedule will be the same.

A record-breaking 92-win last week extended Lewis Hamilton’s grip at the leaderboard to 77 points over teammate Valtteri Bottas. He cannot win the title at Imola, but Mercedes AMG Petronas can bundle out the Constructors’ Trophy. Following a fourth 1-2 finish, their lead over Red Bull is 209 points. Red Bull must outscore them by at least 34 points, to keep the championship alive going into Turkey. The battle for third place is on with just 6 points separating Racing Point, McLaren and Renault.

Toto on Imola – “I am excited to see the journey of Lewis”

It was remarkable to see Lewis achieve his 92nd F1 win. It’s like Michael often said: Records are there to be broken. We’re witnessing the amazing journey of one of the greatest athletes of our time and I’m excited to see where else it will take Lewis.

We showed good pace in Portimão once we got the tyres into their window and left Portugal with the maximum number of points, building the gap in both championships on the way to our ultimate goal this year. Now our focus moves onto Imola, which is another F1 venue that we haven’t visited for a long time. It’s a track with lots of history but one that the Mercedes works team has never raced on before, so there are quite a few unknowns heading into the race weekend, and it’s great to be back in Italy once again for our third different race there this season.

We’ll also be experiencing an unfamiliar schedule, with no running on Friday and just one practice session on Saturday morning. We had an unexpected preview of what this would be like at the Nürburgring after Friday’s running was cancelled because of the rain. We can expect a busy practice session where teams will try to maximise their running on track to prepare in the best way possible for Qualifying and the race; achieving the fastest possible rate of learning will be important to maximise our competitiveness for qualifying and the race.

We’ve seen exciting races on the new tracks this year and the shorter weekend format will spice things up even more, so fans have an interesting weekend to look forward to. Meanwhile, 9 people were tested positive after the last F1 race.


Stat Attack: Imola and Beyond

Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Timetable