Toro Rosso Team Principal Franz Tost defended F1's decision "to race in Azerbaijan next year while brushing off concerns about media freedom and the country's human rights record," according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS. Asked at a Hungarian Grand Prix news conference "how he would react if some reporters were denied entry for Baku's race debut next year, as happened during the inaugural European Games recently, Tost was unmoved." Tost: "There must be a reason why the visa was denied. I don't know the background. To be honest, I don't care about this. So we go there, we race there and that's it. It's your problem how you get the visa." He said that F1 "was a sport and above politics." Tost: "We go there to entertain. We do not go there for any political reasons. It's the same issue we had a couple of years ago with Bahrain." Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner "also made light of the prospect of reporters being barred entry." He said, "It would make our press conferences a lot shorter anyway, so maybe not a bad thing" (REUTERS, 7/25).
HIGH PRAISE: The AFP reported Horner said that the sport needs F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone in charge "more than ever as it seeks to chart a way through its current difficulties." Horner "praised the sport's supremo, a man it has been suggested he might replace as F1's recognised boss and leader." Horner: "Bernie has done a great job for Formula One and the success of Formula One is all because of Bernie Ecclestone. F1 needs him more than ever now to guide us through this difficult period" (AFP, 7/26).
F1 SAFETY SYSTEM: In N.Y., Brad Spurgeon wrote a "sense of fatalism is hanging over Formula One" days after the death of French driver Jules Bianchi. Many observers "consider the Frenchman’s crash a freak accident." Bianchi "skidded off a wet track at high speed and ran under a crane vehicle that was removing a car that had been in an earlier crash." Some argued that "the crane should not have been there at all, but there are few other ways to remove a wreck at the edge of a track." After an inquiry, FIA, the sport’s governing body, concluded that Bianchi "had not sufficiently slowed while track marshals waved two yellow flags." But FIA "also recommended the introduction of what is called a virtual safety car, a system that forces drivers to reduce their speed and freezes the order of a race." The virtual method controls drivers’ speed via electronic commands sent from the race control tower to their steering wheels, "giving each driver maximum and minimum speed limits." Failure to respect the limits, which require speed to be reduced by roughly 35%, "results in a penalty" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/24).
LOSING INTEREST: The AFP reported a "despondent Fernando Alonso admitted that he is losing interest in Formula One and considering a switch to an alternative racing series." He "explained why contemporary F1 is no longer as special for him as it once was." Alonso: "It was more fun before but I don’t think it is because we have more sensors or more information now. Before, we had some freedom in terms of testing and in terms of improving the car as well. ... But now Mercedes will win all the races and Manor will be last in all the races, with more or less sensors or more or less input of driver or team" (AFP, 7/26)
