Bernie Ecclestone has repeated his dismay at the new engine regulations for the 2013 season, once again stressing that the sound is an issue.
He also denied that he was simply rejecting the 1.6 litre, four-cylinder hybrid engines because he has an issue with FIA president Jean Todt – that isn’t the case said the 80-year-old.
“First of all, I do not have any problems with Jean,” he told the official F1 website. “We have a very good relationship. I was the one who took him out of Peugeot and put him in Ferrari.”
What Ecclestone is unhappy with, is the sound such engines will make, comparing them to a GP3 car.
“I am not happy with the engines,” he stressed. “Take a GP3 car – it is how a Formula One car will sound in the future! People come to a Formula One race for the sound and the speed.”
It is a well-known fact that the actual races themselves produce very little CO2 emissions and burn little fuel, in fact the entire season produces less CO2 than a return flight from London to New York, it’s actually the transportation of equipment and spectators which are the issue.
Ecclestone joked that circuits should decrease their capacity to lower spectator numbers, which would have a much more dramatic impact in terms of making the sport ‘greener’.
“I think Jean is following what Max [Mosley] started and I do not know why he [Max] started the whole idea about green racing. If you think that there is more fuel used in the Tour de France then we should start a different discussion.
“If you really want to reduce emissions you could say to the promoters to reduce the capacity of their circuits by ten or 15 percent. Fifteen percent less people coming to a race would make a difference and then you could do the same with football. That would make a difference.”
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