Lewis Hamilton has bemoaned the lack of overtaking in the top flight, whilst admitting that he would be keen to have the opportunity to race a current Formula One car around Brands Hatch following his brief crowd-pleasing outing there last weekend.
The McLaren-Mercedes star took to the Kent circuit at the wheel of his MP4-23 during the DTM's British round and, though he confessed that his short run had whetted his appetite for more, he was quick to point out that the current difficulty of passing in the upper echelon made any grand prix 'boring' – regardless of the nature of the track.
“Brands Hatch is one of those historical circuits that have a lot of character to them,” Hamilton stated. “It's not one of the new circuits that are potentially just flat and boring. The GP circuit offers a lot; it's very, very challenging mentally because you've got a lot of undulations.
“Turn one is pretty incredible – you're trying to get the car on the limit there – and then you get out to the forests at the back, up the straight, uphill and then downhill. To remember it all and put all the sectors together [is something] I always found very challenging.
“It's not as long as the majority of the F1 circuits we race at now, but it would be good fun to get out there in a real F1 car. We saw [in the DTM and F3 Euroseries races over the weekend] that there wasn't much overtaking, so there would be probably no overtaking whatsoever in F1 because it's such a fast circuit, but I wouldn't argue if they wanted to have the British Grand Prix here!
“We do need to be able to follow closely and do more overtaking, for sure, because it gets boring. Look at the last race in Valencia – there was no overtaking at all – so it can be a bit dull. I definitely support the move to try and make F1 more exciting.
“In terms of a physical challenge and getting the car ready, Valencia was just the same as any other circuit. The problem was you couldn't get close to other cars, which is the same at a lot of the circuits we have.
“I think we put on a great show, but you saw there wasn't any overtaking. I don't know what the answer to that is, but I do know I was working my ass off in the race and doing the best job I could.”
The Stevenage-born ace was also forthright in his views about the future of the British Grand Prix – set to move to Donington Park from 2010, albeit with doubts over both the venue's suitability to host F1 and whether it will even be ready in time – and about how he has benefited since arriving in F1 with such a bang last year.
