India Was Such a Poor Place: Lewis Hamilton

World champion Lewis Hamilton has backed races in traditional Formula 1 venues as opposed to new locations on the circuit.

Formula 1 chiefs continued the sport’s current trend by announcing plans earlier this month for a grand prix in Vietnam from 2020.

Venues like Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Abu Dhabi and India are among venues added to the Formula 1 calendar since 2004.

Few of the races – Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain – have generated huge excitement while others such as India and South Korea have fizzled out.

But British star Hamilton, who recently claimed his fifth world title, has questioned that approach.

“On the racing side, I don’t know how important it is to go to new countries as such,” Hamilton told BBC Sport.
“If you had the Silverstone Grand Prix and a London Grand Prix, it would be pretty cool.

“We’ve got a lot of real racing history in England, Germany, Italy and now in the States it is starting to grow. But you only have one event per year in those places.

“If it was my business, I would be trying to do more events in those countries.

“I’ve been to Vietnam before and it is beautiful.

“I’ve been to India before to a race which was strange because India was such a poor place yet we had this massive, beautiful grand prix track made in the middle of nowhere. I felt very conflicted when I went to that grand prix.

“We had a grand prix in Turkey and hardly anyone came. Cool track, cool weekend but poor audience.

“If you have the German Grand Prix and you’ve got a grand prix in Berlin, I think connecting to cities where a lot of people are is probably a good thing, not necessarily going to countries where they don’t know so much about Formula 1.”

Hamilton is two world title successes short of equalling Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of seven, and he added: “I feel I have still got more years, more days ahead if I am lucky, and there are still many mountains to climb.

“There will still be difficult times ahead. I don’t know when they will come, but I feel better prepared now than I ever have been.

“I have got to look at this season, which has been the best of my career, and think, ‘How can I improve next year?”