In a recent interview, Pirelli’s motorsport director, Paul Hembery said NASCAR should be the model for Formula 1.
Hembery told The Guardian that the drivers must again become the stars of F1 rather than the engineers who now make the headlines. “We have a sport which is very much dominated by technology. But I’d like to see the drivers positioned so that they are the kings, the stars who people are following and looking up to,” the Briton said. “I’d like to see the F1 drivers becoming the heroes. The fans want a hero. They want an iconic person to follow. And they want to know that when driver X is winning he’s actually making a difference,” he explained.
Hembery recently attend the NASCAR Sprint Cup race held on the Las Vegas Speedway. He realised that F1 should copy certain things NASCAR do best. “In NASCAR, the driver is the king. Even the guy at the bottom is a superstar with a multi-million dollar contract. I would love to see our drivers held in that esteem,” he declared. “The garages at the back of the pits had glass windows, so the fans were looking into the garages, and they also had a window which slid open at the back of the garage and the stars were giving autographs. And this was an event that had 100,000 people, so people can’t say more people go to F1,” the Pirelli man explained.
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