“It is odd”– Mercedes questions absence of Qatar in Formula 1 after successful inaugural campaign at Losail

Mercedes trackside engineer Andrew Shovlin questions the logic behind keeping Qatar away from F1 for so long, as the track impresses him.

Qatar, for the first time, organized an F1 race. It was the pilot race before the middle-east country pens a 10-year-long tie-up with the sport. Though, another circuit can also be introduced apart from Losail.

Meanwhile, the conditions suited Mercedes to seal a win in Qatar, and their trackside engineer is mightily impressed with the track. He questions why F1 didn’t wander here before.

“It is always nice. The first thing you do when you get here is you want to get out and look around it,” said Shovlin as per GPFans. “Have a walk around and even seeing the tarmac is one of those things that from pictures, you don’t really get a full appreciation of what it is like.”

“That tells you a bit of the story of how it is going to work with the tyres,” he added. It’s not like Qatar isn’t a famous motorsport venue. Since 2004 it has been regularly organizing MotoGP. But the absence of F1 has always remained shocking.”

“It is a circuit which suits F1 cars and it is odd that it has taken us so long to come here. There are obviously some challenges for the tyres and cars themselves.”

“It is pretty aggressive on a number of things and one of the big jobs we had to do on Friday was figuring out whether our simulations were all kind of falling in line with reality, get everything positioned in the right window.”

Also read: MotoGP riders unhappy with F1 visiting Qatar in November

Mercedes pleased; MotoGP unpleased

Whilst F1 cherished their experience in Qatar. MotoGP, since the first day, has shown its opposition. Several MotoGP drivers claim that F1’s run over there would leave bumps on the track.

These consequences will affect their race and safety when they return next year. This is the dilemma Qatar has to solve to keep up with both major motorsports.

Also read: Mercedes reveals why they didn’t use “spicy engine” in Qatar