The province of Emilia-Romagna is suffering from floods. Five have died and thousands have been evacuated from their homes.
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Roope Visuri
The Imola F1 race has been canceled due to the heavy rains ravaging Italy. Five have died and thousands have been evacuated from their homes. The safe organization of the race weekend would not have been possible.
– This is the right decision for everyone. We must uphold safety and not create an additional burden on local authorities who are struggling with this terrible situation, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said (you switch to another service).
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport of Italy Matteo Salvini made a demand to postpone the race earlier on Wednesday.
– It is important to focus all actions on surviving the emergency, Salvini stated in his press release.
Salvini emphasized, for example, the traffic load in the area.
Minister responsible for the protection of people Nello Musumeci told Sky Italia on Wednesday afternoon that 24 municipalities are affected by the flood and all rivers in Emilia-Romagna are flooded.
– The average amount of rain has been 200 millimeters in 36 hours. In some areas, the amount of rain has been 500 millimeters. If you take into account that 1,000 millimeters of water rain in the area during the year, you can understand the intensity of the current amount of rain, Musumeci illustrated.
Teams and F1 series staff were instructed to leave the Imola track pit on Tuesday evening, reports, for example, Autosport (you switch to another service).
Next to the Imola track is the Santerno river, which is feared to flood violently with heavy rains. Videos have been published on the Instagram account of Germany’s Sky Sport showing the beginning of the flooding of the Santerno River on Tuesday.
The Imola race is unlikely to be able to fit into the tight race calendar, so it will not be run this year.