“Hopefully I pick a good year”: Vettel interested in tackling Nurburgring 24 Hours

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In the round-up: Sebastian Vettel says he could be interested in taking on the Nurburgring 24 Hours after his F1 career.

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What they say

Vettel’s brother Fabian contested the 2019 24 Hours of Nurburgring in a Mercedes GT3. The four-times champion said he hopes he would pick a year when the weather is good:

As some say I’m close to the end of my career, maybe it’s something to think about. But I’m sure I will be busy next year and the year after. So I don’t know.

I’ve always liked to follow other categories and other races. I think the 24 hour race here is a race that everyone knows and everybody looks up to, in a way, I think it’s one of the biggest challenges in the motorsport world.

So who knows? Maybe yes. Hopefully I pick a good year because it can be quite a big challenge with the weather as well. So but yeah, I think I don’t know. It’s probably a question more for later days.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Look Ahead thinks that F1’s pursuit of OEMs and road relevance distracts from the purer business of racing – which fans like, regardless of teams’ provenance from factory or family:

F1 should not be overly enamoured with the road car manufacturers participating in the series. Other than Ferrari, they come and go as they please. Pandering to their demands will just lead F1 to being held to ransom. When independent racing teams were winning numerous titles with the Ford DFV, the prestige of F1 wasn’t diminished at all just because it wasn’t won by road car manufacturers. There was no shortage of fans attracted to the independent racing teams. So I say just let F1 be all about racing, with an ample grid of the fastest cars racing on the best circuits and driven by the best drivers. Forget about using F1 to advance road car technology. The biggest performance differentiator in F1 is aerodynamics. The teams spend incredible amounts of money on that, but whatever learned there has no road relevance to the cars sold to the public. I believe even supercar manufacturers have little use for the knowledge gained in making super intricate F1 wings, barge boards and floors. So let’s go back to a Ford DFV powerplant model, but of course using current ICE technology.
Look Ahead

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Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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16 comments on ““Hopefully I pick a good year”: Vettel interested in tackling Nurburgring 24 Hours”

  1. Racefans says: “Vettel interested in tackling Nurburgring 24 Hours”
    Vettel says: “So I don’t know”
    If you want to attract 3000 new subscibers. Stop that.

    1. “So who knows? Maybe yes. Hopefully I pick a good year…”

      He seems pretty interested to me.

      1. I hope he does all kinds of racing, I hope other drivers go and do that aswell.

  2. In this day and age of people actually caring about and understanding the impact we have on the environment, the COTD seems like wishful thinking. F1 is in in the crucial phase of adapt or die. Image is everything and continuing to burn fossil fuels for fun is not likely to be an attractive prospect for just about any potential sponsors.

    1. Right – so the number one thing that needs to change is the type of fuel.
      Move to a carbon-neutral fuel and F1 can be and use whatever it likes.

      1. I’ve noticed people referencing “carbon neutral fuels” really frequently over the past couple of days, which fuels are you referring to?

        1. Not sure exactly what others are referring to – but I think we could include hydrogen (produced from solar, wind or hydro energy) or plant-based biofuels (which capture carbon from the atmosphere).
          No sufficiently (energy) dense combustible fuel is going to be 100% carbon-neutral from start to finish – processing included – but for the sake of this context, anything that results in a near-net zero carbon footprint would suffice.

          I think most of us can apply common sense to what ‘carbon-neutral’ might refer to. We don’t need to get all ‘F1’ about it and specify exactly how neutral neutral actually is with a new technical directive, or by painting a line on the ground…

          1. Unfortunately, even in a fuel cell (which is much more efficient than combustion and doesn’t generate nitrous oxide) hydrogen generates less electricity than is required to make it, unless you use major industrial processes that leave you the problem of having a ton of extremely unstable hydrogen lying around.

            Plant-based biofuels have some potential but the only one currently producible without producing more carbon is using composting plant matter for biomass gas. Ultimately, the intensive farming required to produce consistent crops would result in further, disastrous, de-wilding of the earth and enhance the current climate crisis.

            Regrettably, there is no such thing as a carbon neutral fuel unless production methods were to radically change and the investment in green energies and carbon capture would be a more direct solution, in the current crisis. That said, there are plenty of processes where we release gases and by-products that might turn out to be useful – there’s a horrible runoff from paper production that’s massively toxic but if you heat treat it can be a cathode for a battery, so it’s a case of looking at what we have and trying to work out if it’s usable.

            Nothing would be of racing-grade efficiency standard, however.

          2. @hazelsouthwell
            Yeah sure, they aren’t perfect. That’s why they need to be introduced – F1 pushes development in areas that it relies on. Those techs could develop faster in F1 than out of it.

            Not particularly interested in F1 cars being completely carbon neutral, personally – but changing fuels is a definite improvement over the current oil-derived fuel, wouldn’t you agree?
            You seem to be looking at the destination without considering the journey to get there – 100% carbon-neutral car racing is many, many years away regardless (electric included). In the meantime, F1 still needs to make money and appeal to viewers and sponsors. Being entertaining ultimately pays the bills.
            Formula E does electric, and good on them. F1 can’t and shouldn’t do that – it needs to be different.

            Remember, too – that if F1 were to use plant-based fuels, they only need to produce enough to satisfy the F1 cars right now. F1 cars sip tiny amounts of fuel compared to the wider F1 business as a whole – and indeed the world as a whole.
            As time passes, the methods for producing those fuels gets ever better and more environmentally friendly too. Every step is a step in the right direction. Poo-pooing the idea just because it doesn’t work perfectly today is a very shortsighted approach.

            There are racing series running on primarily plant-based fuels (see Aussie Supercars, for instance, who have been running on far cleaner and more sustainable E85 since 2009, using ethanol derived purely from excess non-food product which would otherwise be waste) – it is purely a commercial consideration that is holding F1 back from such a move.

  3. The Guardian article on Hamilton and Schumacher is so vague. To counter against that comparison, even Schumacher left a successful and race-wining team in Benetton to join the still struggling Ferrari.

    1. True. Mercedes were race winners the year before Hamilton joined. Ferrari won a race before Schumacher joined. Both teams won titles in years previous, Mercedes as Brawn did so 4 years prior while Ferrari had a 15 or 16 year dry spell.

  4. Tommy Scragend
    10th October 2020, 9:00

    Les travaux auront donc essentiellement trait à l’élargissement des dégagements et à la mise en place de bacs à graviers dans 5 virages : La Source, le Raidillon, Blanchimont, Les Combes et enfin Stavelot.

    In other words, “The work will therefore mainly relate to widening the clearances and installing gravel traps in 5 bends: La Source, le Raidillon, Blanchimont, Les Combes and finally Stavelot.”

    Firstly, good news! Secondly, how does that square with the usual line that circuits come out with of “we have to have tarmac runoffs for the motorbikes”?

    1. Best news today.

      Spa will be more like Spa again.

    2. I’m very pleased with this news.

      That was the case for a while but motorcycle racing reverted back to preferring gravel (particularly where space is limited) after a number of incidents where tarmac didn’t stop riders sliding. You may have noticed, for example, that Silverstone has added a few gravel traps for this season

  5. Also today- a very happy 97th birthday to the one and only Murray Walker.

  6. F1’s pandering to OEM’s led to only one joining (Honda) and the most expensive and least competitive era of F1.
    We had 5 straight seasons of privateers winning championships and F1 wasn’t any less for it.

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