Imola has reportedly submitted a tentative application to replace the Chinese Grand Prix on the 2020 F1 calendar.
According to a report from Dutch website Racingnews365, the managing director of the Italian circuit which once hosted the San Marino Grand Prix contacted Liberty Media immediately after last week's postponement of the Chinese Grand Prix.
The round of the F1 world championship, initially scheduled in Shanghai on April 19, was scrapped as a result of the coronavirus outbreak in China.
Imola, which does hold an FIA Grade One license, would now like Liberty and the F1's governing body to consider a return of F1 to its track during the April period, even if circuit boss Roberto Marazzi admits its a long shot.
"We have indeed submitted an application to the FIA and to the F1 organisation to replace the Chinese GP," Marazzi said, quoted by Racingnews365.
"We have not yet received a response to this. I expect it will be difficult to arrange everything."
"Difficult", as Marazzi puts it, is certainly understating the task of organizing a Grand Prix in under sixty days given the logistics involved with such an event, let alone the significant financial requirements. Perhaps the "impossible" is more appropriate.
The last San Marino Grand prix that took place at Imola was in 2006, and it's almost certainy that that event won by Ferrari's Michael Schumacher almost 14 years ago will remain F1's last visit to the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.
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