F1 increasingly on street circuits: 'My opinion makes no difference'

After a Grand Prix on a traditional circuit (Barcelona), Formula 1 will return to a street circuit next weekend. Indeed, when not racing on it, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is open to traffic. Grands Prix through the streets of Singapore and Las Vegas will follow later this season.

Although a Formula 1 race was held in Montreal back in 1978, the track is officially a street circuit. Not comparable to, say, Monaco or Singapore, where overtaking is virtually impossible. Some think it is slowly becoming too much, those races on street circuits, while others cannot get enough. Valtteri Bottas is a bit in between.

'Prefer old school circuits'

"I think it's still okay, but if there would be more and more coming then...," Bottas says in conversation with GPblog and others. Then he continues: "I do prefer the old school tracks, like for example, Suzuka is my favourite track. So I would always go for the more traditional type of tracks. Just because normally the joy you get from driving and the feeling and the rhythm is quite different. That's my opinion, which I don't think is going to make a difference," Bottas said, knowing that the F1 organisation is keen to race on street tracks.

So last week, Formula 1 was operating in Barcelona, but there are thoughts of moving the Spanish Grand Prix to Madrid. Indeed, that will then be a street track. "I like the race here. It's probably not the easiest track to overtake, but it's a nice traditional race with a good atmosphere. The track is nice to drive, I think now even nicer with the new layout. But at the same time, if they come up with something better in Madrid, then yeah, sure. But it's not like we have a say on things, so we go where F1 goes and we race there."