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Sebastian Vettel thinks spec-car racing for F1 drivers sounds like a blast
Sebastian Vettel would love the chance to go head-to-head with his Formula 1 rivals in saloon cars—though he worries those days of drivers jumping into different types of rides might be "gone" forever...
Formula 1 racing is heading back to the Nurburgring for the Eifel Grand Prix next weekend, but there aren't any single-seater support races on the books right now. Formula 2 isn't coming back until after the F3 season wraps up at Mugello...
There's some NASCAR action scheduled, but the rest of the lineup is pretty thin.
To celebrate the launch of the new track, the Nurburgring famously hosted a race back in 1984 that featured 10 F1 World Champions along with several other Grand Prix drivers—all of them tearing it up in Mercedes 190 E cars.
That race was taken by the then-British F3 champ Ayrton Senna, which basically signaled to the world that the Brazilian was a superstar—just three weeks before his first Formula 1 racing success at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Formula 1 hasn't done anything like that since—putting drivers in identical cars to settle the score—but four-time champ Sebastian Vettel is definitely down for the idea.
“That would be fun, I would be up for it,” Sebastian Vettel said. He did mention that if they did it in touring cars or something where they could really push each other, he's worried it might mess with the focus needed for the actual F1 race right after...
“I think it would be fun. It was a long time ago, but even though we do so many F1 races these days, it would be cool to branch out into other cars too.
“Back in the day, you had way more variety—drivers were jumping between Formula 1, Formula 2, whatever, week in and week out.
“Now, the level is just incredibly high, and everyone is so hyper-focused on one thing. I think for us drivers, it’d be a blast to have the chance to mix things up in different categories.
“Then again, I can see how it might pull your focus away and spark a whole bunch of arguments. I guess those days are probably over...”
Brendon Hartley and Fernando Alonso are the only ones lately to juggle Formula 1 racing with another series, hitting the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2017 and 2018-19.
McLaren’s Carlos Sainz mentioned it’d be cool to see how the guys stack up in equal cars, but he’d only want to do it if the machines were top-tier.
“I want to compete in nearly the same conditions to them in a Formula 1 car,” Carlos Sainz told Motorsport.com.
“I don't care about anything else. As a driver, you always want to see where you stand in the fastest car in the world, and that’s a Formula 1 car.
“I wish one day we could all have the same Formula 1 car and see who's the fastest. That would be the ultimate, fairest test. But honestly? Probably impossible.
“At the end of the day, Formula 2, F3, rally, or whatever—it’s just different from what we do professionally. We are Formula 1 drivers and we are experts at driving the fastest cars in the world.
“So, what I’d actually want to do to compare myself to the other 19 is just get the exact same Formula 1 car and see who adapts fastest and who's truly the quickest.”
crazy people 👋