Breaking news

Formula 1

Vettel open to idea of spec-car race for F1 drivers

Sebastian Vettel would relish the opportunity to race his Formula 1 rivals in a saloon car race, but fears the times of drivers trying out different cars are “gone”.

Luke Smith Erwin Jaeggi

Edited: Oct 4, 2020, 8:34 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari in the press conference

F1 will return to the Nurburgring for the Eifel Grand Prix next weekend, but there are no single-seater support races currently scheduled, with F2 not returning until Bahrain and the F3 season having concluded at Mugello.

Races for the Renault Clio Cup and Touring Car Legends series are on the schedule, but it is otherwise sparse.

To mark the opening of the new track, the Nurburgring famously held a race in 1984 featuring 10 F1 world champions and a number of other grand prix drivers, all of whom raced in Mercedes 190 E cars.

The race was won by then-British F3 champion Ayrton Senna, marking the Brazilian out as a future star three weeks before his maiden F1 podium finish at the Monaco Grand Prix.

F1 has not since held a similar event pitting its drivers up against each other in identical machinery, but four-time world champion Vettel was open to the idea.

“That would be fun, I would be up for it,” Vettel said. If we had the chance in touring cars or something, where we could race each other hard, I don’t know if that would maybe jeopardise the show of the F1 race following after that too much.

“I think it would be fun. This is a long time ago, but nowadays, we are doing so many F1 races, but it would be nice to do other races as well in other cars.

“Back then you had much more of a change in terms of drivers driving in Formula 1, Formula 2, anything really, week in, week out.

“Now obviously the level is really, really high, and you focus on one thing. I think for us drivers it would be fun to have the ability to mix and do other cars and other categories as well.

“I can see also then it would take some of your focus away, and then it would start a whole package of arguments. I guess those days are gone.”

Read Also:

Brendon Hartley and Fernando Alonso are the only recent F1 drivers to have balanced duties in the series with another category, racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2017 and 2018-19 respectively.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz thought it would be interesting to see how F1 drivers fared in equal machinery, but would only want to do so in grand prix machinery.

“I want to compete in nearly the same conditions to them in a Formula 1 car,” Sainz told Motorsport.com.

“I don't mind about anything else. As a driver, you always want to see where you are on the fastest car in the world, and that is 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 the best or the most fair test. That is impossible to have I think.

“In the end, F2, F3, rally, or anything else, is different to what we are professionals from. We are professional Formula 1 drivers and we are experts at driving the fastest cars in the world.

“So what I would like to compare against the other 19, is to just get the same Formula 1 car and see who can adapt quickest and see who's the fastest.”

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Ricciardo: Silence worse than criticism for anti-racism push

Next article Seidl: F1 doesn't need invitational races or gimmicks

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Exploring Ferrari's 'less than a tenth' US GP update package

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

6 min

Exploring Ferrari's 'less than a tenth' US GP update package

F1 United States GP: Charles Leclerc pips Max Verstappen to top FP1

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

1 h

F1 United States GP: Charles Leclerc pips Max Verstappen to top FP1

George Russell reveals he lost sleep over his own driving, not the F1 championship

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

2 h

George Russell reveals he lost sleep over his own driving, not the F1 championship

F1 United States GP live commentary and updates - Ferrari leads FP1

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

3 h

F1 United States GP live commentary and updates - Ferrari leads FP1

Feature

Discover prime content

Max Verstappen’s words explained: Why Red Bull’s turnaround is so different this time

Formula 1

United States GP

By Ronald Vording

Max Verstappen’s words explained: Why Red Bull’s turnaround is so different this time

Mission control: Inside the FIA and F1's latest answer to football's VAR

Formula 1

United States GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Mission control: Inside the FIA and F1's latest answer to football's VAR

How Kimi Antonelli levelled up his character to be F1 2026's world champion-elect

Formula 1

United States GP

By Filip Cleeren

How Kimi Antonelli levelled up his character to be F1 2026's world champion-elect

Why Oscar Piastri has struggled to show his best with this year's McLaren MCL40

Formula 1

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Why Oscar Piastri has struggled to show his best with this year's McLaren MCL40

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts