F1 'unlikely' to return to Imola in 2023 after cancellation

Formula 1 is "unlikely" to return to Imola for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in 2023 owing to the busy calendar.

The Imola region has been hit by heavy flooding and rainfall with the paddock being closed to personnel on Wednesday 17th May as preparation for round six of the season continued.

However, after calls from the Italian Deputy Prime Minister to postpone the race, F1 officially called it off on Wednesday afternoon, with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali explaining that one reason for the decision was not to put extra pressure on emergency services during the weekend.

"Analysing the packed calendar it is highly unlikely that the race will be rescheduled, unless another race drops out," says RacingNews365's Editorial Director Dieter Rencken, who is currently in Imola.

The only slot possible before the summer break at the end of July is the weekend of June 23rd-25th, but this would then create a run of four races in four weeks with the Canadian Grand Prix on June 18th before the planned back-to-back in Austria and Britain on July 2nd and July 9th.

Another possibility is to run a race in the August summer break, either on August 6th or August 20th after the Belgian and before the Dutch Grand Prix.

One problem here is that factories must shut down for two weeks in August as part of the summer shutdown.

The cancellation of the Grand Prix is the first time in F1 World Championship history that a race has been called off outright due to weather conditions.