I've said this before, but there are certain expressions you hear throughout the year in Grand Prix racing. When you're testing and you ask people how competitive they are, team members reply "wait until Melbourne" - first Grand Prix of the year. When you're at Melbourne after qualifying, everyone says "ah yes, but wait until the race." And when they've finished nowhere in the race - or even second - they say "ah, but wait until Imola."

Why Imola? Because it's the first European race of the year. While the cars have been flitting around the world, from Europe to Australia to Malaysia to Europe to Brazil and back to Europe, the test teams and engineers have been working hard on development. Although some of that development has already filtered through, much of it will appear for the first time at Imola, scene of the fourth round of the championship, the San Marino Grand Prix.

Surviving! Imola

Imola is really all about Ferrari. On race day morning, as we go around the circuit on the drivers' parade, there is such a sea of red, and that's particularly noticeable around Rivazza where there is a huge mass of people, most of them wearing something red.

A few years ago, there was a solitary saltire, the Cross of St Andrews, waving in this sea of red. "I pity that bloke if you win," I said to David Coulthard, who duly went on to win. "I wonder what happened to that bloke at Rivazza," I asked David afterwards. "That was my mum," he rep(lied).

The nice thing about Italy at this time of year is that it's still cool. The locals haven't had their heads blatted by a month's sun as they have when they're at Monza, so they're reasonably alert and not wandering around in a daze, still in holiday mode.

So the only hazards are vast quantities of Ferrari fans and the local vino. The views are gorgeous, there can still be snow on the hills, it can be very cool, particularly in the morning. The only other hazard is post-race traffic, although this is somewhat lessened if the Ferraris retire, which they don't seem to do too often these days.

The Circuit

Imola is the second of the two anti-clockwise circuits and it's also in the heart of Ferrari-land. Maranello isn't far the other side of Bologna, but actually Minardi's base is closer, down the road at Faenza. Fisichella and Trulli will also be feeling at home, of course, as will Sauber to a smaller extent, due to their re-badged Ferrari engines.

These days, the circuit is more stop/start than ever thanks to the chicanes added in 1995. Consequently, getting Imola right is all about hard braking (only surpassed by Montreal), low speed acceleration out of the chicanes, so good power plus traction and a fuel efficient engine. Now that's not too much to ask for, is it?

History

Few of the locals who come to cheer on Ferrari probably realise that Enzo Ferrari was very much involved in this circuit. Perhaps not as early as 80 B.C. when Imola was called Forum Cornelii and had an amphitheatre which held 15,000 people. Nor, perhaps, when Hemingway mentioned Imola in Farewell to Arms.

But in 1948, in order to help develop the depressed post-war economy, a programme of public works was launched which included the construction of a road connecting the via Emilia (now Rivazza) with the village of Codrigano, up to the present Tosa.

Four motor racing fans from Imola (Alfredo Campagnoli, Graziano Golinelli, Ugo Montevecchi and Gualtiero Vighi) were wandering in the Parco Acque Minerali by the River Santerno and wondering where they could safely race motorcycles rather than around the somewhat ad hoc circuit in town. "This would be an ideal spot for a track," said one and the others agreed. They were later joined by Dr Francesco Costa, who would organize many of the motorcycle events.

Enzo Ferrari was soon involved and a plan for a four kilometers circuit grew into a five kilometer circuit after consultation with the Italian motorcycling federation.