While it’s difficult to see past the human tragedy of the situation in the Emilia Romagna region right now, with nine people losing their lives in the flooding, the cancellation of the race at Imola has its consequences on Formula 1’s teams from a competitive standpoint. F1 made a correct, and timely, call to cancel the race on Wednesday. Many rivers in the region had burst their banks, and to see the swollen Santerno river rushing by just a few feet from the Imola paddock was alarming. Imola’s majestic sweeps and turns would have provided the perfect test for new upgrades, which are always brought by teams for the first European race of the season. Now, with Monaco becoming race six of the schedule, they are suddenly faced with an outlier street race with a high risk of accident damage. Should they take the risk to deploy new parts, or not? Or wait for Barcelona a week later? It's a tricky call. By: Charles Bradley, Global Editor in Chief
Motorsport.com | 
