F1 champ warns against copying rival series

1996 Formula 1 champion Damon Hill has warned the sport about its shift away from traditional tracks and toward city-based street circuits.

Madrid is the latest city to have a proposal for a street-hybrid circuit approved, a move which puts the traditional Spanish Grand Prix stomping ground of the Circuit de Catalunya at risk of getting the chop.

The current trend includes iconic cities like Tokyo, Berlin, and London in Formula E, and now F1 seems to be following suit with city races in Baku, Miami, Vegas, Melbourne and Monaco - something that has left Hill concerned.

Street circuits 'restricted'

“I like to watch the sport. I like to watch the developments,” he said on the Sky Sports F1 podcast. “The thing that I would just add on the Madrid announcement is that we’ve got new engine regulations coming in and then the talk is of the difficulties they’re going to have in extracting consistent performance from the cars.

“So this move towards a tighter, twistier circuit, you know, it is going in the direction of let’s say Formula E which has chosen to have its races in city centres and also on very, it has to be said, restricted circuits.

“So I hope that’s not an indication of a few concessions made towards the fact that these cars are going to be down on performance compared to where they are now.

“With the race in Vegas, we had a very annoyed Max Verstappen talking about the nature of circuits and the kind of circuits you’d like to race on. But the fact is that Formula 1 has to adapt to new demands placed on it from a car manufacturing point of view as well as a government imposing correct environmental questions.

“I hope it’ll be an exciting circuit and the most important thing is that the racing is exciting and the cars can race there and then we’ll be happy.”

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