Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, Mugello, 2020

Drivers ‘not part of the conversation’ on returning to classic venues – Vettel

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In the round-up: Sebastian Vettel says drivers cannot wield any influence over whether Formula 1 returns to circuits such as Mugello.

What they say

Vettel was asked whether the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association can apply pressure to F1 to keep Mugello and other tracks which have been added to the 2020 F1 calendar on the schedule:

I think that’s not part of our discussions, even. I think there’s other tracks that we would like to join the calendar because we love driving those tracks but it’s not discussed because in the end, there’s other interests that determine whether there will be a race held in that place or not.

Speaking of Mugello, I think the drivers like it but obviously I don’t know if it is in the cards in the future, if it is realistic. This I don’t know and we’re not we’re not part of that conversation.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Does Honda’s decision to stay in IndyCar disprove the claims they made about their reasons for leaving Formula 1?

This shows me the Honda press release about leaving F1 was just marketing spin to align it with the current mania about ‘carbon neutral’ as if such a thing were possible over all.

They see IndyCar as a better bet taking the engine knowledge they have learnt from hybrid engines in F1 to benefit the other series.
Witan

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On this day in F1

  • 40 years ago today new champion Alan Jones won F1’s last race at Watkins Glen. His title-winning predecessor Jody Scheckter and their fellow champion Emerson Fittipaldi made their final starts

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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21 comments on “Drivers ‘not part of the conversation’ on returning to classic venues – Vettel”

  1. Corberi and ticktum would get along well. If recent history is anything to go by we will see him linked to a williams seat in 6 months time.

    1. Have to agree here, the calls for a lifelong ban may be just, but history tells us the FIA is awfully forgiving when they really shouldn’t be.

    2. Someone of that age still racing karts and with that kind of rage and attitude sums up his carrier…

  2. RE COTD:

    As I posted on here last week when the news came out, PR is everything because Share Price matters…haha.

  3. How heavy are those bumpers on the karts and how fast are they going? If Corberi had managed to hit Ippolito, what could’ve been the consequences? It looks like it could be life threatening

    1. They are not very heavy at all, depending on how it broke off it could have still have the metal brackets/bolts attached. Either way not cool and could have caused a crash that was potentially dangerous.

      1. Just seen it was a front bumper, no metal brackets on them but still very dangerous, throwing anything on track is

    2. His missed Ippolito and hit another driver instead. What a psycho.

  4. Re COTD: Its worth noting the IndyCar engine deal is actually HPD a subsidiary of the North American Honda subsidiary which has been known to have some liberties afforded it thanks to that separation. Which is also why Alonso driving a Honda powered car was seen as a possibility for the Indy 500 but the distaste for him is so strong Honda HQ issued HPD a rare edict.
    Those costs and engineering resources are also coming from an entirely separate pool of resources in the US. The engineers in Japan will likely be reassigned to different projects road car within the company whereas if HPD were to cease their IndyCar activities those resources would likely be focused on either another racing program or made redundant since HPD and Honda NA only rarely handles any road car development.

    1. @seanloh it also helps that Honda is supplying half the Indycar field for a fraction of the cost (from memory there’s change from $20m) of designing and building engines for just 4 F1 cars.

      That said the COTD is wrong on the engine knowledge argument – Indycar sets the spec and while they do discuss that with OEMs, it can and does intervene to level the playing field if necessary. Indycar do take input from Ilmor (Chevy) & HPD (Honda) but as cost is a factor I don’t see how a $190 per year F1 engine program would be in any way relevant to an Indycar program that is setup for 13-17 cars per race on an annual budget that’s around $30m per year for the lot.

    2. Thanks @seanloh.
      That’s some interesting additional information, and helps explain the different decisions between the two series.

      1. As well, Honda both manufactures and sells a huge number of cars in North America. Toyota has marketing exposure in NASCAR, so I’m sure Honda sees it as vital to have exposure through IndyCar.

  5. At least Honda’s F1 tenure was a much better one compared to what Nissan did with their WEC LMP1 entry, a few years ago.

  6. Clearly Luca Corberi didn’t get the memo that motorsport is not WWE.

  7. I wonder how many drivers would like to drive in Saudi Arabia…

    1. doesn’t matter though, they will if they have to. drivers will be OK and will definitely be treated as VIPs

      1. That’s true. It would be interesting to see if we would have a calender for a year from vettel or someone else

  8. Ofcourse not, the only ones that have a say are the ones holding the big bag of money and are willing to give it to LM and the FIA.

    That’s why we are driving on brilliant tracks like Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, and will be driving in 7 dictatorships next season, Or that the next American GP needs to be driven on a parking lot in Florida.

  9. About the karting incident: What. Was. He. Thinking.

    1. Dave, some would say that the precise problem was that he wasn’t thinking about what he was doing…

Comments are closed.