By Huw Alban
April 19 2006

Fresh off the back of a promising test at Silverstone, Midland F1 head off to Italy for round four of the 2006 World Championship. This sees the start of a string of five European races which ends in late June when the team head off to Canada.

The town of Imola is a tiny little place just east of the Apennine mountains which run down the back of the Italian nation. The town first hosted a Grand Prix in 1980, but this race was not named the San Marino Grand Prix until a year later. The race is named after a tiny republic some 50 miles away sat on top of a mountain; a relic of Italian history.

The circuit is made up of short straights and chicanes, making traction and suspension a very important characteristic. Traditionally this track is a hard place to overtake at, so qualifying positions are important.

In 2005, Jordan took up their positions at the back of the field but ahead of the two Minardi's. In a race of attrition both cars were brought home in 12th and 13th places at the back of the pack.

The team worked hard on their start procedures last week, and Technical Director James Key seemed confident that the issues that had affected the team's starts so far had been resolved. In addition, details have emerged that Midland have been working hard in the wind tunnel also and various aerodynamic changes have been spotted on the M16 all of which are set to get their first run in anger this weekend.

Both drivers will be using their Australia engines (we believe), so reliability could be a factor in the race for the team. In addition, with the proliferation of kirbs at Imola engines have a tendency to hit the rev limiter as the car bounces and the rear wheels leave the race track. This leads to excess vibrations which can do serious harm to a V8 engine.

It's difficult to predict what will happen for Midland F1 this weekend, and lord knows they could do with a strong result if only to silence the critics. What would be encouraging to see is at least one MF1 car make it into the second qualifying session, and make it on merit and not because of someone else's technical problems or errors.

As this is a European race, Midland F1 Online will be there covering every lap as it happens, so be sure to check in on the forum and find out how the team are doing.