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Bottas and Hamilton: Formula 1 tracks influenced too much by politics and money

Bottas and Hamilton: Formula 1 tracks influenced too much by politics and money

17-07-2019 12:20 Last update: 13:07
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Bobby Vincent

Mercedes duo Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton are hopeful drivers can have more say on the competition's choice of circuits, with the current decision process being over influenced by "pure political reasons and money".

Following the race at Circuit Paul Ricard in France, Formula 1 came under immense criticism, with the track not allowing many overtakes and leading to a fairly dull race. However, there have now been two exciting races; firstly in Austria and then followed by the British Grand Prix on Sunday.

With races in Spain, Mexico and Germany all under huge threat of disappearing from the F1 calendar, there should be some new races added, adding to the Dutch Grand Prix and the Vietnamese Grand Prix that have already been announced.

"We know better than anybody which track we can overtake (on) and which track we can't," Hamilton explained to Autosport. "I don't know who does the selection, and I know it's not that they always have a ton of tracks in every country that are possible to race a grand prix - but there are ones that they're selecting for the future that we're going to have not such great racing (at), the ones that are on the calendar that aren't great."

His team-mate Bottas echoed Hamilton's points and finds it a problem that some circuits ensure there can't be enjoyable racing: "I'm sure many of the track selections for the calendar, it's just for political reasons and money, rather than actually focusing on whether it's good for racing or not.

"From our side, it's not that nice. We love racing. Everyone loves good racing, so that's how it should be."