The top three finishers of the Italian Grand Prix have all voiced vociferous opposition to the prospect of the Monza venue being abandoned by F1.
The future of the historic race at Monza has been in doubt for some time, with during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend Bernie Ecclestone saying there was a “good chance” that there won’t be a new contract agreed after the current one ends. And after visiting the podium in Monza Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa all were scathing at the thought of losing this race.
Vettel stated: “If we take this away from the calendar for any s****y money reasons I think you are basically ripping our hearts out. 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.”
The other two Monza podium occupants agreed. “This is one of the best tracks in the world” said Hamilton. “This has to stay here for moral reasons”.
“Are you going to take this Grand Prix away from us and put on another one, that would not have the same feeling, or would not have the special impact so we definitely have to keep this.”
While Massa said: “I don’t think they can take it out. The history of Formula One, this is history here, here is part of what is Formula One… everything that Formula One grows is a lot thanks to these races as well, to these people. We race for the people and when you see the podium with a lot of people like that and they’re screaming and crying, I don’t think we can lose that.
“This is part of our blood and we cannot lose this type of races. I really like to go to new countries, we go to amazing countries, countries that I even didn’t know what they meant before and then I love to go there, many different countries and I’m really in favour to go there but you cannot lose something which is inside the blood as well.”
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