The first sprint event of the 2022 season is set to prove even more challenging for Formula 1 drivers due to the risk of rain during the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix weekend.
For the first time this season, there is over 50% chance of rain affecting an official session – which could have consequences for the entire weekend.The revised race weekend schedule for sprint weekends sees a single practice session on Friday afternoon before qualifying in the evening. There is a high likelihood of rain over the Imola circuit on Friday morning, with a 57% chance of rain when the first practice session gets underway at 1.30pm local time. The risk of rain will lower before the start of the evening qualifying session, but with just under a 20% chance of rain before the start of Q1.
Saturday’s sessions – final practice and the sprint race – are likely to be dry, however. Clear, sunny skies are expected over the circuit once second practice gets underway, with temperatures reaching a high of just over 20C. A slight cover of cloud should form by the time the field line up for the sprint race, with a minimal risk of rain.
On Sunday, there is a another slight risk of rain for the start of the race, but likely only light showers if there is any precipitation during the course of the race.
Last year’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix was also affected by rain. The race started in very wet conditions and the track dried out during the course of the race. Max Verstappen won the race after taking the lead at the start as Lewis Hamilton recovered from an off midway through the race and benefiting from a red flag stoppage to take second place, with Lando Norris in third.
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2022 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix
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spoutnik (@spoutnik)
21st April 2022, 13:15
Good.
We could have some tyre changes in a sprint race after all.
Vernysage (@vernysage-2)
21st April 2022, 13:21
What are you talking about? Sprint will be dry race.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
21st April 2022, 13:51
Expect them to call it a HUGE SUCCESS, even if rain always makes things interesting, sprint or not.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
21st April 2022, 14:06
Pretty much seems to be the way it goes. Ross will again tell everyone it will be even better if they had a reverse grid and sing the praises of how great sprints are.
Surveys will come back with a huge majority in favour even if 75% say they hate it.
S
21st April 2022, 14:14
And he’d be right. It would certainly make it worth watching.
The majority of respondents to any such survey would likely be the type who don’t want it and are most vocal about their feelings anyway, making the survey rather useless from the outset.
I’ll add one too.
No matter what happens, a bunch of people will jump onto their websites of choice and tell everyone how much they hate sprint races and how F1 has changed for the worse and how they are almost at the point they will stop watching F1 after (x) years of being a fan.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
21st April 2022, 14:24
Quite right. Noisy minority who refuse to take part in surveys then lambast them
johnandtonic
21st April 2022, 14:23
Has Ross Brawn ever had an idea which Ross Brawn did no think was a success. Perhaps that should be included in the next F1 survey.
S
21st April 2022, 14:07
If it’s a success, then why wouldn’t they call it a success?
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
21st April 2022, 19:34
Because it’d be like Brazil, where the sprint race was interesting because of Hamilton’s DSQ from qualy. It wasn’t a result of the sprint race format, but something else. But they still made it sound like “thank you sprint races for this exciting weekend!”.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
21st April 2022, 14:05
Wait? Rain race? This might solve Mercedes porpoising?
Think of all the droplets interfering with downforce.
We will see what happens.
baasbas
22nd April 2022, 8:42
@jureo
Actually, yes. When the average speeds drop because of a wet track it will be beneficial for all the bouncy cars in the field.