'Our suffering compares nothing to what people are experiencing in Imola'

Not only Formula 1 will not be in action this weekend, the drivers in Formula 2 and 3 were also due to run their races at the Imola circuit. On Tuesday, the first images of the F2 paddock, which is separated from the F1 garages, were released. Heavy rain caused the paddock of the junior class to be flooded, as MP Motorsport team boss Sander Dorsman also observed: "When it flows into the trailer, you then know it's not going to be anything."

During Thursday, Dorsman will fly to Barcelona, where his team will be in action in the F1 Academy next weekend. Changed plans, then, after the unsurprising news was made public at 13:00 on Wednesday that there will be no racing in Imola. "It was a busy day," the team boss of the reigning champion in F2 looks back in conversation with GPblog. "Logistically, it was quite a job to throw everything around."

Temporary accommodation for MP Motorsport

Not only did he himself have to arrange a flight to Spain, it was especially important to get his team members and all the equipment elsewhere. In the course of Thursday, the drivers of the MP Motorsport trucks will be allowed to collect their cars at the circuit, after they had to leave Imola by rail on Tuesday due to the evacuation. An Italian team from another racing class will temporarily host MP Motorsport from Thursday, until the trip to the next race in Monaco can be made. "We just finished a test in Barcelona, which ended wet. So there is still some work to do. Our mechanics can set up their workshop near Parma."

Dorsman has not been to the circuit himself: "In Bologna, where our hotel is, it also rained, as it can in the Netherlands. In Imola, the circuit is next to a river. I also saw the images that everyone saw. Our drivers told us that the car park was flooded to knee height. Today you were up to your elbows in the water. Then when it flows into the trailer, you then know it's not going to be anything today."

Terrible for locals

The cancellation of the race weekend thereupon can count on nothing but understanding from Dorsman. "The police cannot be busy with a Grand Prix," he continued. "Mainly for those people there, this is terrible. Our suffering really is nothing compared to what the people there are experiencing right now."

So Formula 2 and Formula 3 - like Formula 1, of course - are missing a race weekend. Catching up with without F1 is impossible as the systems are linked together with Formula 1. One more option could be to have F2 and F3 hold an extra race during another F1 weekend. "For F3, that could be Zandvoort," said Dorsman.

"F2 is already running at all European circuits, so what will be difficult. We have 14 race weekends. With one falling away, we still have more left than we had two years ago. We happen to be in the same hotel as the FIA delegation, but we haven't heard anything about other dates. The FIA has other things on its mind at the moment."