“It’s lovely to travel, but we all love racing in our home country with home
supporters. Whether you drive quicker or not is questionable, but it’s just
a lovely atmosphere having the home crowd there.
“With regard to the Olympic
Stadium, it’s a fantastic facility we’re going to see opened to the world in
a few weeks’ time. It would be great if we had the opportunity to race there
as well.”
Force
India’s Paul di Resta, the third British driver in Formula One, was
more circumspect. “You’d have a lot of complaints from people living around
there about the noise wouldn’t you?” he said.
“Unfortunately I think that’s a strong possibility, but the venue would be
state of the art and I’m sure you could combine it with some street stuff as
well.
“London is one of the leading cities in the world, so why should we not enjoy
something like that? We should be entitled to a European Grand Prix. Spain
have one, Germany did so for years.
“If you take the ratio of teams based in the UK then I’m sure they would be
happy to have it as well.”
Former driver David Coulthard, who was part of a Formula One demonstration in
Regent Street in 2004, added that he was sure it could be made to work,
however far-fetched it might seem.
I’ve no idea whether the plans are viable but where there’s a will there’s a
way,” said the Scot. “If you can close London for various events — whether
it’s the Jubilee or the Marathon — of course you can make it happen.”