Vettel 'would be up' for racing F1 rivals in equal machinery

Sebastian Vettel says it would be fun to battle his F1 rivals in a race in which everyone would be onboard identical cars.

F1 will return to the Nürburgring this week, and the German track is the last venue to have hosted a one-make race that brought together the F1 grid.

The 'Race of Champions' event took place in 1984 and was set up by Mercedes to inaugurate the rebuilt circuit.

The likes of Alain Prost, Niki Lauda, Keke Rosberg, Alan Jones, James Hunt, Jody Scheckter and many others were pitted against each other onboard identical Mercedes 190 Es in race trim.

It was however newcomer Ayrton Senna, who had just started his career in F1, who beat his contemporaries, the Brazilian just edging Lauda.

"That would be fun, I would be up for it," Vettel said recently when asked about the opportunity of racing his rivals in same-spec cars.

"If we had the chance in touring cars or something, where we could race each other hard, I don’t know if that would maybe jeopardise the show of the F1 race following after that too much.

"I think it would be fun. This is a long time ago, but nowadays, we are doing so many F1 races, but it would be nice to do other races as well in other cars."

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For drivers of past generations, racing in a diverse set of categories was a rule rather than an exception, although Fernando Alonso has espoused the concept of eclecticism in motorsport.

"Back then you had much more of a change in terms of drivers driving in Formula 1, Formula 2, anything really, week in, week out," Vettel added.

"Now obviously the level is really, really high, and you focus on one thing. I think for us drivers it would be fun to have the ability to mix and do other cars and other categories as well.

"I can see also then it would take some of your focus away, and then it would start a whole package of arguments. I guess those days are gone."

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