Emilia Romagna Grand Prix 2024 Travel Review

Who are you/ your role: Sam Jones – Sales Executive

Your trip (Race, Date & City): Imola Grand Prix 2024 ticket and travel package – Bologna/Imola – 16th-20th May 2024

Imola Grand Prix weekend. The first of two Italian races on the calendar and a lively atmosphere welcomed us as the Tifosi gathered in the streets and stands of Imola painting the city in the famous Ferrari Red colours.

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Thursday, arrivals day. We arrive in Bologna, the lively, historic capital of the Emilia Romagna region in Northern Italy, with over 38km’s of porticoes that run through the city. It made a great location for our clients, with lots of bars and restaurants spread around the city centre offering a fantastic range of Italy’s finest pasta and pizzas, as well as the beer, wine and Aperol Spritz that were consumed over the weekend. This day gave us an opportunity to familiarize ourselves and explore the city of Bologna, the weather held up as showers were expected, but the weekend provided fantastic weather with glorious sunshine throughout.

Friday, Practice session. The following day, more client arrivals were welcomed into Bologna, whilst others opted to make their own way to the circuit via the train for practice, which got off to a fantastic start for Ferrari, with both Leclerc and Sainz in the top 3 in FP1, Leclerc went onto top FP2, before Sainz then came 3rd in FP3, roars from the Tifosi and the sea of red that packaged the grandstands around the circuit. For the many McLaren fans, FP3 also gave promise for Qualification Day, as both drivers came home 1st and 2nd in final practice and were setting a great pace.

For those who didn’t attend the practice session on the Friday, it provided a day at leisure to head to Modena and Maranello to visit the Ferrari Museums, this was a great way to get up close to supercars and current F1 cars and engines and learn about the history of motorsport and Ferrari, including the former house and workshop that belonged to Enzo Ferrari’s father which is located on site.

The day soon drew to a close and this evening we were hosting our welcome drinks, this is a great opportunity for the group to meet and discuss the weekend with a couple of drinks and light refreshments with our representatives, it was great to see so many familiar faces and meet new ones, all sharing stories and discussing our predictions for race weekend.

Saturday, Qualifying. As we made our way to the circuit on qualification day, the anticipation built and the sun was shining, Ferrari flags and fans packed the walkway down to the circuit entrance with chants echoing throughout the streets of Imola. With it also being the 30th anniversary of Aryton Senna, Brazilian flags were on show and at the circuit the memorial was covered in flowers and flags from supporters, a real touching tribute to the world championship driver. Qualification didn’t quite go as planned, Max found plenty of pace after a disappointing practice session the day before, making pole position for Sunday's race, followed by Piastri, and Norris, not a single Ferrari made the top 3, or so we thought, later that day, Piastri was hit with a grid penalty and this meant Leclerc would be 3rd on the grid with Sainz just behind in 4th, giving the Tifosi plenty to cheer about and go into Sunday dreaming of what could be.

Sunday, race day. With the alarms set early and the action of Saturday on everyone’s minds, we soon departed to the circuit for race day, this was a great time to send round our sweepstake sheet, where everyone predicts their top 3 for the race and in case of a tie break, their predictions on the first retirement from the race, this can be very competitive and a small prize rewarded to the winner.

Again, the Ferrari fans were out in full force amongst a very good following for the McLarens as everyone headed down to the circuit, a full day’s line up was in order, with the F2 race, a Senna tribute lap delivered by Vettel in one of Senna’s old F1 cars, the Porsche super car series and then it was time for lights out. The grandstands and general admission areas were packed, the Ferrari flags and Tifo displays covered the stands, with the occasional red flares being set off as the cars lined up and the Italian national anthem bellowed out.

The race got really tense in the last 8 laps where Norris was on a charge thanks to battery issues in Verstappen’s car, the gap was cut in the final 2 laps to just 1 second, down from a 7-second lead only a few laps earlier, although Max managed to hold out with the gap at the chequered flag just 0.7 parting him from the McLaren. For Ferrari, Charles had to settle for 3rd leaving the Tifosi something to cheer about.

Everyone soon hopped back onto the coaches as we departed Imola one last time and headed back into Bologna for our final evening. The weekend was fantastic and many compliments and discussions on the weekend were shared, and one final pizza was definitely on the cards, we cannot wait to visit again in 2025!

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