Sebastian Vettel outlines hopes for traditional circuits' places on F1 calendar

Sebastian Vettel has said it would be horrible for Formula 1 to lose some of its more traditional circuits from the calendar as the sport pushes into new markets.

The sport appears to be cracking America after several attempts, with three races in the US set for next season, whilst lucrative deals with the likes of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and Abu Dhabi a little before them, have all been penned.

F1 is growing rapidly, and it makes sense for the sport to use that to its advantage, but drivers and fans alike are also keen to see the likes of Spa, Monza, Silverstone and others remain firm fixtures on the schedule given their history, meaning and prestige.

Vettel, a self-confessed F1 anorak, is certainly of that mind too:

“I think it’s always exciting to go to new places, providing they are good places, right places for us to be at.

“Obviously we had an absence of racing in America and then Austin came on the calendar, which was very exciting and established as a great race.

“Maybe another great example is Singapore. We’d never been there before and now, you know, it’s great to be back this year.

“And, you know, the first night race, I think there’s something special about that track and that place. So it’s good to explore new sides.

“Obviously you hope that all the new places you go to are an addition.

“Equally you don’t want to lose out on the places you’ve gone to for so long. So it would be horrible to lose Melbourne from the calendar.

“It would be horrible to you lose some of the tracks, the core tracks in Europe.

“There’s financial interests in new places that we are going and, in the end, F1 is a business.

“But I think, yeah, for us, it’s a sport, it’s our passion. So we don’t see it as a business.

“I think we see it