The main thing is that you've got world-class facilities, not just here in Abu Dhabi but in Bahrain, there's a fantastic circuit just up the road in Dubai. Motor sport in the region is obviously taking off, and that's not just the circuits, that's the infrastructure behind it and I think karting infrastructures have been put in place and out of that will come drivers, will come technicians and any incentive to help youngsters to enter the world of motor sport we would fully support, and I think it's only a matter of time before that happens.
MT:
We have established Formula
BMW in Asia/Pacific some years ago, including a racing centre for driver education in Bahrain. Initially it's been quite difficult because there was no racing infrastructure. Young talents in Europe usually go karting for four, five or even more years before jumping into a formula car. This is different or has been different here but meanwhile the series has come along quite strongly and so we will continue next year.
BB:
We're not involved in any specific driver training facilities here or elsewhere but I certainly feel that
Formula One can benefit and it can benefit the countries that it visits by a technological relationship. For example, we have some partnerships with academic institutions around the world where there are circuits, and I think that's great for the local community, great for
Formula One. It goes on quietly in the background, but it's part of the business that we do and it's important.
Q:
(Joris Fioriti –
AFP) Back again to Mr Bell: same topic, pretty much. Apart from the fact that he's young and quite inexperienced, how would you grade
Romain Grosjean's performance this year so far? Apart from the fact that he's young and inexperienced…
BB:
Well, one of those points is fairly key and that is the inexperience. It is genuinely a fact that it is extremely difficult for a young driver now to enter
Formula One mid-season with no real testing experience behind him. If he's fortunate enough to be introduced to the team before the season starts and can get through a winter testing programme then that's one thing to be dropped (into the team) in mid-season as Romain was. It's very hard for any of them and so that's a problem that
Formula One has put upon itself, quite rightly so. The reduction in testing was done for good reason, I'm not being critical of it but it does make it difficult for drivers, so he's had an uphill struggle. He's done a sound job in dealing with that. He has two problems that he has to confront. Firstly, his team-mate is a double World Champion and that's a hard metric to judge yourself against as a young driver. And we haven't given him a particularly good car and that is equally hard for a young driver to come in. So it hasn't been an easy birth for him in
Formula One but that doesn't deny that he's got a lot of talent and I'm very sure that in the future we will see that talent exploited.
