Losing Monza would “rip our hearts out” – Vettel

2015 Italian Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel has urged Formula One not to the Italian Grand Prix fall off the calendar for “money reasons”.

Vettel said he scored “the best second place I ever had” in today’s race, his first at Monza as a Ferrari driver. He scored his maiden grand prix victory at the track in a Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso in 2008.

“The emotions on the podium is incredible,” said Vettel in the press conference after today’s race.

“If we take this away from the calendar for any shitty money reasons I think you are basically ripping our hearts out,” he added. “We are here, we are racing and this makes it so much more worthwhile.”

“It’s what we’re here for. You stand on the grid, you look to the left, you look to the right, people are just happy to be part of it and it makes our day. So, simple as that. It’s incredible.”

Monza has a contract to run the Italian Grand Prix until next season, but race organisers are yet to agree an extension with Bernie Ecclestone. F1’s commercial rights holder has repeatedly cast doubt on whether they will be able to agree terms.

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    Keith Collantine
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    29 comments on “Losing Monza would “rip our hearts out” – Vettel”

    1. Finally some common sense. Vettel is the only voice at the moment. Last race he spoke about the tires and this time about the core of the problems. That’s why Bernie dooesn’t think that he is a worthy champion. Bernie should finally leave the boat!

      1. @nidzovski I agree, Vettel is the voice of reason at the moment. F1 has already lost the French GP, German GP (this year at least), San Marino gone.. imagine if the calendar has no Italian GP. It’d be ridiculous.

      2. The way je talked about the tyres made no sense and he’s only making a fuss about Monza because he’s at Ferrari now. In years before he would be booed off the podium, so I doubt he was he enjoying it much then.

        1. Nice try, @patrickl, but he has always loved Monza; it’s where he had his first victory.

        2. Nice try @patrickl. It seems you didn’t watch F1 in 2010 and didn’t see that he had the word MONZA sewn under his helmet in Abu Dhabi 2010 in honor of his first F1 win. Monza was always special to him.

    2. Silverstone is exactly the same, maybe with a lot less emotion flowing from the grandstands because british people are different to italians. But Silverstone, Monaco, Nurburgring/Hockenheim, Spa they have to do everything they can to keep those places.

      It doesn’t matter if it’s not profitable for F1. They have to be in the calendar. Sometimes things don’t work out finantially, but you still have to do it, because it the identity of F1. F1 without Monza or Silverstone isn’t F1. The sport has lost a lot of it’s identity, the tracks are probably the biggest connection fans have with the sport, and you can’t take that out from them.

      1. Interlagos, Montreal and Suzuka should also be protected in my opinion. France should also have a Grand Prix

        1. @foleyger true, true, i just put some examples

          1. I agree with u

      2. In the 70’s, Bernie almost shut down Silverstone for safety reasons, and a great many threats were employed to get the owners to make improvements.

    3. I’m starting to seriously worry that in a few years’ time my biggest regret will be that I never went to see the Italian Grand Prix at Monza when I had the chance.

      1. Same here. I hope i will be there next year

        1. @marussi, tickets might come very cheap :P

          1. Maybe @coldfly maybe ;)

    4. I’m very glad that Vettel has assumed the role of his former teammate Mark Webber as the mouthpiece of the F1 drivers. He doesn’t quite have the same satirical overtones as Aussie Grit, but he makes a straightforward case that I think a lot of spectators can relate to.

      On the topic in hand, Damon Hill I felt made an excellent point in that it is the heritage races that sell the brand abroad – the images of the Tifosi swarming the straight at Monza and colouring it red with their driver looking over from above make hosting a race highly desirable. In the long run F1 would not just lose its soul but also it’s marketability. Bernie cannot afford to continually castrate the calendar of its classic European backbone for a quick (quite a few million, one must confess) buck.

      I do feel that sadly sometimes the glory of the sport is lost under commerce, business and bickering – the latter two of which are often not mutually exclusive.

      1. Excuse autocorrect’s attempts to malign the message with poor grammar.

      2. @vettel1 this is spot on – changing venues for quick cash is just that: short-term money. bernie will be dead before the sport’s intrinsic value is permanently tarnished.

    5. If Monza leaves the calendar, F1 truly has lost it’s soul.

      1. F1 doesn’t need a soul, it’s not about the speed, noise, competition, performance… It’s all about the show, it’s show-business, as long as people are buying JAG watches, that’s all that matters… /s

    6. Formula One doesn’t deserve Monza.

    7. If F1 lost Monza, it may as well lose Ferrari as far as I’m concerned. The reason why I actaully do like the Ferrari team is because of the Tifosi, the long history and the many great celebrations we saw with a Ferrari driver on the podium…

      I always said to my wife that Spa is where I want to watch a race car race, and Monza is where I want to experience the atmosphere of an f1 race.

    8. Was it my imagination, or did I hear Martin Brundle in his Sky commentary say something like “If we lose Monza, I’m done with F1.” ???

      In any case, CVC and the other F1 investors have reached the limit IMO. We have quite enough already of Tilke tracks in undeveloped despotic regimes.

      I guess when they agreed to covertly mutate Formula 1 to Formula H(ybrid) in 2007/2008, they thought they could get away with anything and fans wouldn’t really care. Maybe they’re right?

    9. Thing is as the old tracks bring the glamour and a reach i to the past this is why places like Abu Dhabi pay so much so they are associated with these great tracks and F1 memories. If they all go o e by one and are replaced with billion pound super tracks how long before those new tracks question why they are paying so much when the glamour of hosting the races will have depleted?

    10. My first race as a spectator in Monza was around 35 years ago. My dad brought me. It was endurance. Since then I have been at F1 races around 15 times. On scooters, bicycle, walking, climbing trees, fences, sleeping on wet grass, in a tent, on the stands, in mud or under beautiful sky. I lived in Monza for years and every weekends I could hear engines running from my balcony. Monza, Silverstone, SPA, Suzuka, Hockenheim are F1, like Le Mans is the 24 hours and Isle of Man is the Tourist Trophy. No single man can take this away from the people. It’s a God given right to humanity. Business cannot always be the only right. I live in Dubai, close to Abu Dhabi. The F1 race here is pathetic in terms of atmosphere, it’s like another sport. Bernie, get straight

    11. monza has been there since 1950 and it must stay the same. mugello is a nice track. imola too. but monza is the greatest in italy

    12. Yea, Lose the Italian GP and your going to see a boycott from fans.. That will be really profitable!

    13. I really think losing Monza from the calendar could be a major tipping point for F1. Already many of the traditional circuits have been lost and this could be final straw. What with the comments of someone like Mark Webber on the cars and the depth of the driver market, I think if Monza is lost many people in Europe will just give up completely. Also some of the former world champions are nearing the end of their careers e.g. Alonso, Button and Raikkonen. F1 needs to generate interest from new spectators but if the numbers watching it or attending races starts to fall, the whole thing could snowball. F1 could be dead within 5 years.

    14. Vettel is right, to drop Monza from the schedule for money reasons is just plain stupid. If the history of teams like Ferrari and McLaren are valued in the form of extra payments, the history of circuits like Monza should be valued in the form of cheaper contracts to host a Grand Prix compared to new venues (IMO).

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