The track was inaugurated as a semi-permanent venue in 1953, originally known as the Autodromo di Imola. The first races, held in April 1953, were motorcycle races; the first car race took place in June 1954. In its original configuration the circuit had no chicanes: the runs from Acque Minerali to Rivazza, and from Rivazza through the pits and the Tamburello corner, were essentially straights with small bends. This layout remained in place until 1972.
In April 1963 the circuit hosted its first Formula One race, a non-championship event won by Jim Clark for Lotus. A further non-championship Formula One event was held in 1979, won by Niki Lauda for Brabham-Alfa Romeo. Imola officially entered the Formula One World Championship calendar in 1980, hosting the 1980 Italian Grand Prix — the first time since the 1948 edition at Parco del Valentino that Autodromo Nazionale Monza did not host the Italian Grand Prix. That race was won by Nelson Piquet. Its success led to the creation of the San Marino Grand Prix, which was held at Imola every year from 1981 to 2006.
The circuit was subject to persistent safety concerns, in particular the Tamburello corner — a flat-out, high-speed left-hander that was very bumpy and had dangerously little room between the track and a concrete wall. That wall separated the circuit from the Santerno river, which runs adjacent to the track, and lacked a tyre barrier.
In 1987 Nelson Piquet crashed heavily at Tamburello during practice following a tyre failure and missed the race due to injury. In 1989 Gerhard Berger crashed his Ferrari at Tamburello after a front wing failure; the car ignited on impact at 300 km/h (190 mph) but Berger survived and missed only the 1989 Monaco Grand Prix due to burns to his hands. Michele Alboreto suffered a major crash while testing at the circuit in 1991 but escaped injury. In 1992 Riccardo Patrese also crashed at Tamburello while testing for the Williams team.
The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix became a defining event in motorsport safety history. During Friday practice, Rubens Barrichello was launched over a kerb into a tyre barrier at the Variante Bassa, knocked unconscious, and saved by quick medical intervention. During Saturday qualifying, Austrian Roland Ratzenberger died instantly from a basilar skull fracture when his Simtek lost its front wing and struck a wall at the Villeneuve corner at over 310 km/h (190 mph). On the following day, three-time World Champion Ayrton Senna crashed into the concrete wall at Tamburello on lap 7 when his Williams steering column broke; Senna died in hospital several hours after the crash. Two separate incidents during the same weekend also injured several spectators and mechanics.
In the immediate aftermath, the Tamburello corner was converted from a flat-out left-hander into a left-right-left chicane with a gravel trap. The Villeneuve corner, previously a 6th-gear right-hander into Tosa, was made a 4th-gear sweeper also with a gravel trap on the outside. The Acqua Minerali chicane was eliminated and the Variante Bassa was straightened into a single chicane as part of the same revisions.
Additional modifications were made at the Variante Alta, a chicane at the top of the hill leading down to Rivazza and the hardest braking point on the circuit. High kerbs at this corner had caused repeated car damage and accidents. Before the 2006 Grand Prix, the kerbs were lowered considerably and the turn was tightened to reduce speeds. Following the removal of Formula One from the calendar after 2006, major reconstruction work began. The pit garages and paddock were demolished and completely rebuilt, the pit lane was extended and resurfaced, and a bypass to the Variante Bassa chicane was added for cars, making the run from Rivazza 2 to the first Tamburello chicane entirely flat-out. The reconstruction was overseen by German Formula One track architect Hermann Tilke.
Formula One stopped racing at Imola after the 2006 season. In June 2008, with reconstruction largely complete, the FIA awarded the track a "1T" rating permitting official Formula One tests; full "1" homologation followed in August 2011. In July 2016 Imola signed a deal to host the Italian Grand Prix from 2017, but in September 2016 Autodromo Nazionale Monza secured a new contract and Imola took legal action; it withdrew that case in November 2016. In February 2020 Imola submitted a bid to replace the cancelled 2020 Chinese Grand Prix. On 24 July 2020 it was confirmed Imola would rejoin the calendar, hosting the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix named in honour of its region. The 2020 event was held over two days on 31 October and 1 November. The 2023 running was cancelled due to the Emilia-Romagna floods that also caused the Santerno river to flood the circuit. The circuit is contracted to host a Formula One Grand Prix until 2025. The circuit's president is Giancarlo Minardi of the former Minardi F1 team.
The official lap record for the current Grand Prix circuit layout is 1:15.484, set by Lewis Hamilton during the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. The unofficial all-time track record is 1:13.609, set by Valtteri Bottas in qualifying for the same race.
Three fatal accidents have been recorded at the circuit: Sauro Pazzaglia died during qualifying for the 1981 San Marino motorcycle Grand Prix; Roland Ratzenberger died during qualifying for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix; Ayrton Senna died during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix race.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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