Hamilton: 'Add more city circuits to F1'!

Lewis Hamilton would welcome the opportunity to race in major metropolitan cities, moving Formula 1 closer to the fans.

In a Q&A online interview with UBS, the three-time world champion lamented the fact that many race tracks, like Shanghai, are located far away from city hubs, a situation which impacts attendance rates.

"I’m not necessarily a big fan of some of the new tracks we have," explained the Mercedes driver.

"Some of them are so far outside of a city, people have to commute so far. When we go to China for example, such a great city, so many people, it’s such a big commute to get there.

"It’s a great track, I don’t know why they’ve built it so far away. We’ve got some race in some places where there are just no fans. Why the hell do we have races there? It’s the fans that make the event."

Hence the need to add bustling city races to the calendar, according to Hamilton.

"I think the future is city circuits. That’s my belief. I hope they introduce more city circuits [to the calendar].

"New York would be amazing. The Unite] States are such a big part of the world and we only have one grand prix there. I think we need to have more."

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But Ham would also love to see London added to the mix, a city which periodically pops up when new venues are mentioned although a serious plan backed by a major promoter has yet to materialize.

"I want a grand prix in London so much," he said.

"It wouldn’t sound spectacular right now because the cars sound terrible. The V6, it’s a known fact, they sound bad.

"When I first came to F1 it was so loud it pierced your ears. That’s another part of it, I hope they bring back that sound."

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