Imola

What you'll find

Imola is an old circuit forced into the modern era, and that tension is what makes it special. It's narrow, it runs the opposite way to almost everywhere else — anti-clockwise — it has genuine elevation change and the walls are close. Overtaking is desperately hard, so qualifying counts double and races are decided by strategy and by other people's mistakes. In Assetto Corsa EVO the kerb work stands out especially: they're tall, they're everywhere, and using them properly is the difference between a good lap and a wasted one.

It's a circuit of rhythm, not spectacular braking. Tamburello and Villeneuve are fast chicanes where you use the inside kerb without fear, but the exit kerb rises more than it looks and unsettles the car exactly as you accelerate.

The upper part — Acque Minerali and the two Rivazzas — is where the lap is made. You climb blind towards Acque Minerali and drop down trail-braking into Rivazza with a light rear end. Being anti-clockwise, your neck and your tyres load up the opposite way to normal.

Sector by sector

How the lap unfolds from start to finish, with the lines and the places where time is genuinely won and lost.

How to set the car up

Imola wants a car that sits well on the kerbs, because you ride them in four chicanes a lap. Too stiff a setup bounces and spits you off; too soft and it bottoms out in the Acque Minerali compression. The middle ground is softer than most people run by default.

Downforce goes high: there are few long straights and plenty of medium-speed corners, so the compromise is easy compared with Monza. What does matter is balance, because being anti-clockwise the car loads the opposite way to usual and the front-right tyre suffers far more than normal.

Pay attention to ride height. Imola has real elevation change and several compressions, and a very low car bottoms out on the Acque Minerali descent and at the entry to Rivazza, losing grip exactly under braking.

What almost everyone gets wrong

1. Pisar mal los pianos de la Variante Alta. It's the most expensive mistake here. You have to take them with the car straight; turning on top of them sends the car out sideways, and the wall is right there.
2. Entrar pasado en Acque Minerali. Se llega en bajada y con el coche ligero. Pasarse no solo te cuesta la curva: te deja sin velocidad para toda la subida siguiente.
3. Intentar adelantar en Piratella. It's blind and narrow. What looks like a gap isn't one, and that's where most of the circuit's penalty-worthy incidents happen.
4. Descuidar la salida de Rivazza 2. Es la curva que decide si vas a poder atacar en Tamburello o no. Mucha gente la trata como el final de la vuelta cuando en realidad es el principio de la siguiente.
5. Running the car too stiff. It works at smooth circuits, not here. With four high-kerbed chicanes a lap, stiffness costs you at every one.

From the real circuit to Assetto Corsa EVO

An old circuit, measured to the millimetre

Imola is a fifties layout that has kept its character: uneven asphalt, natural elevation and kerbs that have grown with each rebuild. Assetto Corsa EVO's laser scan captures exactly that, which is why the compressions at Acque Minerali and Rivazza feel like steps rather than a smooth ramp.

Photogrammetry adds the Acque Minerali parkland and the paddock buildings, which are the references everyone uses for the blind turn-in points, especially at Piratella.

What carries over well

Kerb use. Learning in the sim how much kerb each chicane will take applies directly, because the geometry and the height are measured. It's one of the circuits where virtual practice gives the clearest return.

Respect, too. Imola teaches quickly that the margin is small, and that lesson — not being on the limit in every corner at once — is the one closest to real driving.

What doesn't carry over

The perception of narrowness. On screen Imola's track looks a normal width; in reality, with walls and barriers a few metres away, the feeling is completely different and shapes what a driver dares to do.

And the weight of history. Imola is a circuit where terrible things happened, and anyone who goes there drives it with that in mind. It's a factor that isn't modelled but that exists.

El circuito como monumento

Imola is, as well as a circuit, a place of memory in motor racing. There's a monument to Ayrton Senna at Tamburello, and a good share of visitors go as much for that as for the track. Understanding that dimension helps explain why the current layout has the chicanes it has: they aren't a design whim, they're a direct consequence of 1994.

Driving it in the sim knowing this changes the experience. Tamburello and Villeneuve, slow chicanes today, were flat-out corners: when you go through knowing what used to be there, the circuit reads differently.

Where it comes from

The Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari opened in 1953 using roads through Imola's parkland. It hosted the San Marino Grand Prix for two decades and is one of the best-loved layouts for its old-circuit character.

The 1994 weekend, with the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna, changed motor racing safety forever. Tamburello and Villeneuve, once flat-out corners, became the chicanes raced today.

Visiting the real circuit

Imola is one of the most accessible circuits in Europe for a fan: it's in the middle of the town, beside the river, and much of the site is public park. You can walk around inside on almost any day of the year without paying.

The Ayrton Senna monument, on the outside of Tamburello, is essential and receives flowers daily. There's also a museum devoted to the circuit's history and the races it has hosted.

The circuit runs track days and club events through much of the season, and it's less than an hour from Bologna, which makes it easy to combine with a trip round the region. [Confirm calendar, prices and access on the circuit's official website.]

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