The circuit was called the Autodromo di Imola from 1953 to 1956 and the Autodromo Dino Ferrari from 1957 to 1988. The first motorcycle races took place in April 1953, and the first car race in June 1954. 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 event took place in 1979, won by Niki Lauda for Brabham-Alfa Romeo.
Imola hosted non-championship Formula One races in the 1963 Imola Grand Prix and the 1979 Dino Ferrari Grand Prix. It was used for official championship races in the 1980 Italian Grand Prix and the San Marino Grand Prix every year from 1981 to 2006. Formula One stopped racing at Imola in 2007, but eventually returned in 2020, with the circuit hosting the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix since 2020. When Formula One visits Imola, it is considered one of the home circuits of the Scuderia Ferrari racing team.
The circuit has hosted many other motor racing series, including the Superbike World Championship, Motocross World Championship, World Touring Car Championship, and European Le Mans Series. Several road bicycle races have also used the circuit, including stages of the Giro d'Italia and UCI Road World Championships.
Safety concerns with the circuit were raised throughout the 1980s and 1990s, particularly with the high speed Tamburello corner. This resulted in fatalities, including those that killed Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna in 1994. Chicanes were introduced at multiple points to reduce cornering speeds, which changed the nature of the course. In response to the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, modifications were carried out to the Tamburello corner to make it safer by converting it from a flat-out left hander to a left-right-left chicane.
Since 2007, the circuit has undergone major revisions. The old pit garages and paddock have been demolished and completely rebuilt, while the pitlane was extended and resurfaced. The reconstruction was overseen by German F1 track architect Hermann Tilke. In June 2008, the FIA gave the track a "1T" rating, and as of August 2011, the track received a '1' FIA homologation rating.
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 the qualifying of the aforementioned race.
Fatal accidents at the circuit include Sauro Pazzaglia in 1981, Roland Ratzenberger in 1994, and Ayrton Senna in 1994.
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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