Return To Imola - Imola 6 Hours, April 2026

Sunday 19th April

I'd booked a train to Imola for 10:30, so I had time for breakfast again at Piano Piano, before heading back to the station, about 15 minutes away.

I grabbed a sandwich, bag of tortilla chips and a can of Pepsi for lunch and boarded my train.

It was only a few stops to Imola and I walked down the road directly opposite the station concourse which I knew led directly to the circuit.

The Goodyear 'blimp' is a feature of WEC rounds these days.

There were definitely more people headed there in 2026 than there had been in 2024, on my last visit and that was borne out by the crowds inside.

Getting in was a pain. Whereas on my last visit there was little security and a free flowing entry, I found officious people on the bridge over the river before the circuit checking everyone's bags and removing all sorts of innocent items, including my full can of Pepsi and thousands of plastic bottles of water. Luckily they didn't take my empty water bottle (not sure why, perhaps because it was empty?), so I was able, eventually, to top it up from time to time around the circuit, which essential in the warm sunshine.

The circuit

Once in, I decided to try and find the Tamburello chicane as on my previous visit, I'd not been able to find the path to this section through to Piratella.

I spotted a sign to the Ayrton Senna memorial, which I knew was near there, so I set off in that direction, quickly reaching the Tamburello chicane. There is often action here at the start of the race, so I settled myself down to watch the first few laps here, even though the view wasn't great.

The Senna Memorial

At 1PM the pace car peeled in and the race started.

Surprisingly, the whole field was well behaved through the chicane and my expectation of some action was unfulfilled, so after 2 or 3 laps I walked on, passing the Senna Memorial (sadly it looks a bit tacky with all the banners and flags hung around it. The small, simple statue itself is quite restrained and tasteful).

The Hypercars on the warm up lap

I found a tap and filled my water bottle and then moved onto the Villeneuve Chicane, where I stood for a while watching the Hypercars working their way through the GT3 cars.

The leading Ferrari about to catch some of the GT3 field

GT3 Corvette, Porsche and BMW being lapped by Ferrari and Toyota Hypercars

Alpine and BMW Hypercar at Villeneuve Chicane

Then I moved onto Tosa, where I climbed into the stand (I was pleased to see it's named the Roland Ratzenberger Stand) to get a view over the catch fencing to take some photographs.

2nd placed (at this stage) Ferrari at Tosa

These two GT3s battled for the class victory

Genesis were the newcomers to the Hypercar class

Toyota's heavily revised car is now a TR010

Cadillac showed good pace, finished a lowly 8th

4th placed Alpine leading GT3 winner into Tosa

Alpine were again near the leading pace, taking 4th overall

Likewise BMW, finishing 5th

The 'privateer' Ferrari never looked on the leading pace

This McLaren looked set for victory, until a late race problem

The other BMW car in a more traditional livery

Shortly after I did, the first safety car period started (caused by the demise of the Lexus GT3 cars, I think, the lack of English commentary making it hard to know what wasn't happening right in front of you, although I did manage to find a Porsche timing website that allowed me to follow the positions throughout the race, without having to spend out again for the live video footage on the WEC App - It's a nice idea, but how much data would 6 hours of video consume on a phone?).

Peugeot were strong in qualifying, but faded in the race, despite their striking new livery

The AM Valkyrie remains the best sounding car and finished in the points

The GT3 Aston Martin was off the front running pace

The number 8 Toyota took the race victory

Imola was again a Toyota vs Ferrari battle

5th placed BMW in Tosa

AM Valkyrie in Tosa

Striking German flag liveried 911 took a podium in GT3

I stayed here for a while and then had to leave the circuit to move around to the next part of the trac k I could enter. This was a long walk, bypassing Aqua Minerale and allowing re-entry right round between there and Variante Alta.

Cadillac in Aqua Minerale

Genesis in Aqua Minerale

GT3 Aston climbs the hill out of Aqua Minerale

Cadillac ran well at times

Toyota hypercar passes a GT3 Mustang

The Valkyrie still looks and sounds amazing, but was not quick at Imola

I wanted to watch and take photographs at the steep climb out of Aqua Minerale, so headed left towards there and climbed up into the stand to watch from there for a while.

Porsche 911 on its way to 3rd in GT3

Aston exits Aqua Minerale

Genesis exits Aqua Minerale

Ferrari 296s weren't on the pace in GT3

Privateer Ferrari

BMW 20 delivered a decent result

View from the Aqua Minerale stand

After some time there, I carried back on up the hill to the inside of Variante Alta, but there was not decent spots to get photographs, so I headed along to the bridge at the top of the hill before Rivazza (stopping for a cold beer at a cafe just before it, while another safety car period was going on) and then exited the circuit and walked back to the outside of Variante Alta, where I sat in the stands to get some photographs of the cars through the chicane without being impeded by the catch fencing.

Race winning Toyota leaps across Variante Alta kerbs

Aston Martin Valkyrie 007 flies through Variante Alta

Peugeot 94 on its way to 12th

Imola is a nice circuit to watch sportscar, with interesting corners and elevation changes and some good spots for photography from the stand, but the frustrating process of exiting and entering the track as you walk around is annoying during a 6 hour race.

AMG GTs were oddly off the pace in GT3

51 Ferrari had to settle for 2nd in the end

After that I headed BACK to the bridge, checking in and out AGAIN, and then sat in the stand there for a while, watching the cars descend into Rivazza and then onto the start/finish straight.

Grey Genesis 17 passes the Mclaren GT3 down towards Rivazza

After a while there, I crossed the bridge and sat on the hill for a while, watching the cars through the same corner, but along the full length of the straight, almost as far as the Tamburello Chicane again.

I could see cars in and out of the pits and a large screen there meant I could follow the action.

Cars head along the start/finish straight towards Tamburello

Cadillac 38 on the home straight

While I sat her it started to get ominously cloudy. Rain had been forecast for the race for some days and it started to drizzle very lightly for a while, but barely enough to justify putting up my hood (Although the drop in temperature did prompt me to put on my waterproof jacket).

Storm clounds threatened, but significant rain held off until after the race

Across the track and beyond the pits, though, I could see occasional flashes of lighting, so a cloudburst seemed almost inevitable.

Fortunately, it held off to the end of the race.

In Hypercars, a race long duel between the Ferraris and the Toyotas, tilted in favour of the number 8 Toyota in the last couple of hours and it extended its lead in the final part of the race to win by a decent margin.

Behind came the 51 Ferrari and the second Toyota.

Genesis, the newcomers to the series, had a decent start, running at the back of the field with maximum weight, both cars finishing.

Genesis had a promising start with both cars reaching the finish, although were never a threat

One of the Peugeots lost time in the Tamburello gravel, but Alpine and BMW had decent runs to 4th and 5th overall.

Peugeot's qualifying pace wasn't reflected in a good race result

Alpine 35 heads towards a strong 4th

Aston Martin's two Valkyries ran inside the top 8 for much of the race, but ended up 9th (in the points) and 14th.

Aston Martin Valkyrie 009 flies through Variante Alta

In GT3, it looked like McLaren had gained a decisive upper hand after some exciting racing in the first 4 hours, but with just 35 minutes to go, the car slowed and was wheeled into its pit box. It did return later, but too far down to recover.

A retro 'Tic Tac' liveried BMW M4 took victory, ahead of one of the Corvettes and a Porsche 911.

'Tic Tac' retro liveried BMW M4 on way to GT3 victory

Ferrari 83 passes Corvette 33 that finished 2nd in GT3

Lexus had an awful race, with both cars hitting mechanical trouble within a lap of each other, early on.

Ford and Ferrari had disappointing GT3 races, with the best Ferrari in 6th and best Ford in 8th, despite looking strong at times.

Ford's GT3 effort looked strong at times

007 Aston Martin Valkyrie took 9th and some points

I watched the last few minutes on a big screen in the 'Fan Zone' marred by a very loud DJ set of mostly crap dance beat infused covers - Surely they could have found an area with a screen and commentary for those people who'd actually come to watch a motor race? There was one last year and it attracted a lot of people.

Genesis 17 had an untroubled run to 15th

Then 7PM rolled around, the Toyota crossed the line and the fireworks were set off.

Toyota 8 heads to victory

In 4 visits to Hypercar era sportscar races in the last 4 years, I've seen a Toyota win 3! (Ferrari won in Spa in 2025).

A constant moan from some fans is that Ferrari get an unfair Balance of Performance (BOP) deal, making their cars too fast, but, once again, the result didn't reflect the Italian cars' outright pace.

As I walked back through Imola to the station, the threatened rain finally arrived, soaking the streets.

It was dark by the time I got back to Bologna, with many of the buildings lit up, but I found time to return to the Rosarose restaurant and enjoyed a Carbonara and a glass of red wine as my last proper meal of the trip.

Piazza Magiorre by night

Monday was going to be a busy day, too!

TECHNICAL NOTE: I bought myself a 28-300MM Tamron zoom lens in January 2026 and all these photographs were taken with it. I have to say I was extremely pleased with the quality of the images from this race, which can only be down to the lens as the camera, a Pentax K30, remained the same.

Monday 20th April

While looking for things to do around Bologna, I discovered that Modena and Maranello were both close and my original plan for my final day was to visit the two Ferrari museums.

While finalising my plans for the day, I spotted that Pagani were also near Modena and, better yet, offered a tour of their factory, which Ferrari don't!

Since first seeing a Zonda in the 'flesh' at Le Mans many years ago, I've admired their jewel like construction and the approach that extends to making their own bolts out of Titanium!

The chance to see how these amazing machines were constructed was too good to miss, so I booked myself onto the 10 O'clock tour.

The early start meant I couldn't claim my included breakfast, so I made my way to the station and boarded the train bound for Modena.

As I'd changed my plans to go to Pagani, I actually got off at Castelfranco Emilia, where I was collected by the Pagani shuttle bus and drove through the fairly mundane industrial estate to the factory.

As we drew up, I spotted a black Utopia in the car park of the factory and walked around to the front of the museum-cum-factory, which was quite an impressive structure, designed we were told later by Horacio Pagani himself.

The Pagani factory and Museum

The museum gates opened at 9:30 and I wandered in an presented my ticket, was given a blue wristband and told the tour would start at 10, but I could look around the museum until then.

The museum is very small, consisting of 7 road cars and an early Pagani designed racecar, plus numerous design models for Paganis and a history of Horacio's journey to making these amazing cars.

Heavily modified Hyuara

If you want to see more Paganis, the factory tour is well worth paying out for as there were another 7 or 8 cars or full scale models (made from wood) in the factory itself, while, of course, there were, during our visit, numerous Utopias in various stages of production, ranging from having the parts cut from carbon fibre sheet, to final quality checks before delivery.

I would say, at £50 or so, the factory tour is well worth the money anyway.

My wristband for the factory tour

We were first led past a department fitting upholstery and other detail parts into a large, airy area, designed to look like an Italian square, complete with clock tower that chimed as we entered.

To the right was a row of Paganis. A couple were full size wooden design models and another 4 or 5 various Pagani models (of course, so far, they've only made the 3 basic models, the Zonda, Huyara and current Utopia).

Zondas and Huyaras feature in the small museum

Beyond that a powder blue Utopia was undergoing final pre-delivery inspection.

To the left half a dozen Utopias sat in chassis forms, in various stages of construction, some with just the bare tub and a few parts attached, some nearly completed.

Another row were in the same stages, while the green and silver Utopia 'demonstrator' sat in the factory, too, which were told was unusual.

We were able to ask our guide questions as we went and she was able to answer them knowledgably, on the whole. One of our party rather pompously asked "As an engineer, I want to know why you don't use Lazer Sintered metal, rather than milled from a solid block", which I don't think she fully understood, but maybe his tone was due to speaking in a second language (The tour was in English, but he wasn't a native English speaker).

Zondas and Huyaras feature in the small museum

We went upstairs where we saw a couple of middle aged women controlling machinery that was cutting small pieces of carbon fibre from large sheets, in various colours, and then we walked to a window, where we could see twenty or so men, laying up the carbon fibre into moulds, building the basic components of the tub and the bodywork (doors, bonnet clamshell, mirrors, etc).

Back downstairs we could see into the room containing the autoclaves, were the parts are baked at 160C and 6 Bar (as I recall being told) for various lengths of time to achieve the required strength.

From there, we took a more detailed look at the cars under final assembly and an in-house made titanium bolt was handed around to give us a sense of the lengths Pagani go to to ensure their cars, while being incredibly luxurious, remain as light as possible.

Hyuara number 1 was one of the original show cars.

Someone asked what the lead time was for a Pagani, but we were told that, with all the Utopias sold, there was currently nothing to order, until the next model was revealed! All we could do, was to put our name down for whatever Horacio builds next!

We then had a guided tour of the factory, where we were given a potted history of Horacio's life and career (He famously took out a bank loan to buy his first autoclave at Lamborghini after that marque refused to embrace composite materials - He then had to set up his own company to use it, as they refused to install his autoclave in their factory! He went onto do work for them and, of course, to finally establish Pagani and build his own cars).

Cinque Roadster features all black instruments.

I spent a little more time around the museum and in the shop after that and then boarded the bus back to the station, where I took a train onto the next stop, Modena.

Zonda roadster in the commisioning suite

I decided to visit the Enzo Ferrari museum and see if there was still a chance to take a shuttle bus down to Maranello as that was the museum I really wanted to visit of the two, but there is only one bus there and one bus back each day and the outbound had left some hours before I arrived. A taxi was going to cost me in excess of 100 Euros return and a public bus take too long to ensure I was back in time to get to the airport, so the option of Maranello was, sadly, out of the question.

So I grabbed a light snack for lunch in the cafe, as I'd not eaten all morning, and then bought a ticket.

The Enzo Ferrari museum is based on Enzo's father's old garage and the attached house, where Enzo was born, and features that building and a large modern building next door, which seems to house an ever changing themed display.

The Enzo Ferrari Museum in Modena

When I visited, the theme was 'Greatest Hits : Music Stars and their Ferraris'.

Ticket to the Museum

They gave me a headset and a QR code to scan, to listen to commentary, but sadly, after a couple of the cars, the app started giving errors, so I gave up on that. Fortunately, the exhibits featured boards in Italian and English, to explain the significance of each car and the 'music star' they were associated with.

First car was a 250GTO, associated with Nick Mason, famed car collector and sometime drummer with Pink Floyd. However, it clearly wasn't HIS 250GTO on display as it was a deep blue, rather his car's iconic red. (I once pulled up to it at a petrol station on the Hog's Back in my Marcos and got a nod of appreciation, for another enthusiast, I presume, from Nick).

250 GTO

Other earlier Ferraris included Maria Callas' and Herbert Von Karajan's.

Maria Callas' 250 GT

A rather mundance Mondial spyder was attributed to Kate Bush (apparently a serial Ferrari owner) and the lovely F40 was associated with Mick Jagger, which slightly surprised me.

288 GTO

Iconic F40

A bright green LaFerrari was associated with Jamiraqui front-man Jay Kay, very him it looked, while a one-off, based on a 458, for Eric Clapton was shown as a full scale mock up.

La Ferrari and mock up of Eric Clapton's custom 458 based car

The hall in which the cars were displayed was probably more impressive than the cars!

The hall is at least as impressive as the cars

I then made my way into the building that had once been the garage and house.

The restored former garage of Enzo's father housed a Ferrari engine display when I visited

This building featured a display showing the evolution of Ferrari engines, from the earliest 1.5 litre V12, the latest hybrid powertrains, including some F1 engines.

The first, 1.5L, Ferrari V12

A Flat 12 cutaway

80s Testarossa Flat 12

F40 powertrain

Enzo's restored office

It was an interesting museum, but I'm sure Maranello is far more extensive - As the lady in the ticket office said "It's an excuse to come back".

I'm still glad, though, on balance, that I'd done the factory tour at Pagani as that was a fantastic experience - Now I just need a Euro Millions win and for Pagani to announce a new model!

I headed back to Bologna, but when I reached the Marconi Express there was a long queue. After a few minutes, it became clear that it wasn't moving.

Some people around me (a Belgian couple and a French woman, who was travelling to London) suggested getting a cab to the airport together. After a couple of false starts, we found another queue at the taxi rank (and the Belgians disappeared - They had about 45 minutes to their flight, so I'm doubtful they would have made it!). The French woman and I got talking to a young Italian man and when we reached the front of the queue, we suggested he come in the taxi with us to save waiting for the next one. We got to the airport quite quickly (it's close to the city centre) and (despite us offering to share the cost) he paid for the taxi, saying his company were paying and it wasn't costing him anything and he'd appreciated us letting him share our cab!

The rest of the journey back to Heathrow was uneventful, but I had more delays there as I returned with British Airways, which meant returning to T5. So, I had to make my way to T2 to catch the shuttle bus to the appropriate car park.

It took me 2 hours from touch down, to reaching home, so 35 miles away.

Summary

Once again, I greatly enjoyed my trip to Imola, although, if I'm brutally honest, I enjoyed the days around the race the most.

The race, though, was exciting and enjoyable and I was very happy with a decent percentage of my photographs.

The sights of Bologna were great, too, an interesting city to visit, visited in good weather on this trip.

The tour of Pagani was a once in a lifetime experience and I'm so glad I chose to do that over going to Maranello.

Although in a perfect world I would have done the latter in preference to Modena's Enzo Ferrari museum, that was still worth my time, especially as I just didn't have time for Pagani and Maranello as things turned out.

Overall, another highly enjoyable weekend visiting Imola for the WEC.

However, I don't think I'll return to Imola for a couple of years at least, which may mean I won't be at a WEC round in 2027, let's see.

Highlights of the race if you didn't see it.

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