Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are the biggest losers from Imola Grand Prix cancellation

They’ve been talking about it for weeks. In fact since the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix at the beginning of March, Mercedes have pinpointed this weekend in Imola as a new beginning not only this season, but in this new phase of ground-effect regulations first brought in last year.

Toto Wolff has made no secret of F1’s return to traditional European circuits as marking a line in the sand for his team’s prospects in 2023, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell waiting eagerly in the cockpit to see how far they can reduce the hefty gap – 128 points in the constructors’ standings – to Red Bull out in front.

News on Wednesday then of the cancellation of this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix comes as a bitter blow to their development plans. In the wider scheme of things, though, Mercedes’ fortunes are very much not a priority.

The swiftness of those at Formula 1 on the ground in Imola has not gone unnoticed in the past few days. F1 made the right call to cancel given the severe flooding in the region, even if as expected the race cannot be rescheduled this year. For a sporting entity and a governing body, the FIA, who have repeatedly blundered in recent months, this time the communication between executives, teams and the media was clear throughout in an ever-changing situation.

As opposed to Australia in 2020 amid the coronavirus outbreak, as well as Spa in 2021 with heavy rain eventually rendering racing redundant, the call here was decisive while matters of far more importance to local bodies in northern Italy, not least the emergency services, take greater hold.

In a sporting context however, given the sheer anticipation at Mercedes for an upgrade package which was set to include a trio of new sidepods, floor and front suspension, this delay is far from ideal.

As recently as the weekend, engineering director Andrew Shovlin said: “We took some decisions on how we develop the car – how the car works aerodynamically, how we shape the characteristics of the car, how it is in terms of handling.

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"What we are going to be bringing to the track in Imola is the first step of that work. This takes quite a long time to develop in the wind tunnel, you can’t just do these things overnight. But the Imola package is the first step in that direction.”

At Imola, with three practice sessions, qualifying and a 63-lap race on a traditional European circuit with 19 turns – even if rain was forecast – the technicians and engineers at Mercedes would have gathered swathes of useful data regarding the W14’s performance, consistency and raw speed. An immediate evaluation would have been collated: have the upgrades made the car quicker?

But it is no longer the Imola package. Rather unsatisfactorily, it is now the Monaco package.

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Out of all 23 race circuits on the 2023 schedule, the twisty turns of the principality are perhaps the last place upgrades would want to be tested first time out. The unique dimensions of the Monaco street circuit are out of kilter with the vast majority of tracks on the calendar, meaning upgrades designed to improve the quality of the car over the course of a season may not have a positive impact in Monaco.

Thankfully, the race that follows is in Barcelona – a track which before the pandemic was traditionally used for testing. A more appropriate analysis can be ascertained during that weekend in Spain.

While Ferrari were also expected to bring improvements this weekend, the focus was undeniably on the Mercedes garage. Now, that anticipation and development plan will have to be re-routed.

Hamilton stated after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in April that he was “counting down the days” until the anticipated upgrades at Imola: the scene of his ultimate humiliation when he was lapped by old foe Max Verstappen in last year’s race.

Unfortunately for the seven-time world champion, he will have to wait that little bit longer.