F1 News
Wolff wants to get rid of "supermarket parking lot" type circuits
- GPblog.com
Due to the COVID crisis, Formula 1 was forced to switch to alternative circuits this season. Because races have mainly been held in Europe, a number of older circuits were added to the calendar, something that many people have enjoyed.
Mugello and Portimaõ were visited for the first time, and the Nürburgring and Imola returned to the calendar. The drivers were overwhelmingly enthusiastic about this, as these tracks are 'old school' in their layout, especially because there is grass and gravel, where in modern tracks this is often replaced by asphalt.
Huge parking lots
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff believes Formula 1 should learn from the characteristics of those tracks, and avoid turning them into 'huge parking lots'. In Saudi Arabia, this will probably be the case again. In 2021, the new circuit will be added to the F1 calendar, and this season's additions will disappear again.
"I've always disagreed with the direction we've chosen to race on tracks resembling huge supermarket parking lots. It takes away the factor of driver skill," said Wolff talking to Motorsportweek.com.
Bringing gravel back
"That's why I love racing on tracks like Imola and Mugello. Mistakes are punished hard there. I think we need to bring back gravel so you can't just fly off the track and then just keep going."
He continues: "I think most tracks can be adapted to that standard, but these historic tracks will always keep a soul. You can say the same for Bahrain because we've been racing there for a long time now, but maybe we should change the tracks the way I described."