1996 Formula One Champion Damon Hill has urged car manufacturers to show more respect to the sport as he feels they do not understand what its all about.
The Englishman says the manufacturers are so preoccupied with winning all the time and producing a product which is above everybody else’s in order to promote themselves that they forget what Formula One is all about.
Hill told Autosport: "They have not spent their life in the sport, they know how to run huge companies and what they try to do is produce a better product than their competitors and try to capture the minds of potential customers. This sport is not about that. Somebody has to draw that line, and whether that's Max Mosley or Bernie Ecclestone or whoever, I don't know, but someone has to."
"This sport is about people escaping -- it should be an escape, an entertainment. It's an arena, no different from ancient Rome when they had Circus Maximus. It' s a place where people let off steam. They come and they forget.”
Hill added that people do not wish to see races being manipulated and instead will do something else in their free time, as he was most likely referring to Ferrari’s antics in Australia and Indianapolis.
Hill concluded: “We all work hard these days, and we want our leisure time. We don't want to sit down on a Sunday afternoon and see a race manipulated because a car maker needs to feel that its brand is successful every time."
Written: Thu, 26 Dec 2002 21:44:05
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- (December 26, 2002)View all headlines from this date
