“Not sleep on your own laurels” – Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi believes traditional circuits like Monza and Silverstone need to stop being complacent and improve their facilities.
Circuits in the Middle-East like Jeddah, Yas Marina, and Losail have made a name for themselves in the F1 world, be it for their infrastructure and facilities.
Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi is impressed with these tracks, with just the high number of crashes a sticking point.
“I personally think it’s setting the bar high, in terms of infrastructure [and it] makes some venerable, amazing tracks look a bit old and shabby.
“Especially when you are in Abu Dhabi, it’s all perfect, it’s very nice and they’re making the right modifications on the track. I think Abu Dhabi now is much better than it used to be. The drivers certainly like it.
“Perhaps, in Saudi, they went a bit too far because there are high speeds [for a street circuit], so they need to do a bit of…
“In F2, as well as F1, it benefited us, Alpine, most times. F1 we managed to get away from the crashes, there were probably too many crashes.”
Old European tracks need upgrading
Tracks like Monza and Silverstone have been around since eternity, and are the favourite tracks of a huge chunk of the F1 faithful.
But Rossi believes they need to move beyond their reputation, and make significant upgrades to their facilities, to keep up with the new-gen tracks coming up.
“That said, I like the take on new tracks, interesting designs, and amazing infrastructure. For me, it’s an interesting way of stretching everyone back in the old continent [Europe] to not sleep on your own laurels.
“It’s great to be in Monza and Silverstone, and I love those races very much, but you need to stay on top of your game because the others will probably build.
“I guess Miami will try and do the same. They’ve built something to make sure that if you fall asleep, they’ll get the spot.”
