Americans, British firming up plans for multisport event
American and British Olympic leaders will firm up plans for a multisport event between the countries at a meeting in New York later this month.
The trans-Atlantic rivals, who occupied the top two spots in the medal standings at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, are exploring plans for a biennial contest that will alternate between the countries featuring about a halfdozen sports. The first event last week.
“They look like proper monsters, I mean, wow,” the former Mercedes driver said. “With those cars the drivers need to be gladiators out there. The cars are going to take them to the limit, physically also, even now they’re hurting bad, all of them.
“That’s how it should be also. It should take the drivers physically to their absolute limits. And maybe we’ll even see some races where someone will lose a win because he’s just knackered. That would be exciting.”
For Fernando Alonso, regardless of the problems his McLaren team is having, there is simply no contest: could be staged in 2019 as part of preparations for the following year’s Tokyo Olympics.
“The question now is to identify which sports this works best for and speaking to those sports and our stakeholders about it,” British Olympic Association chief executive Bill Sweeney said at the organisation’s London headquarters.
Although the United States is strong in swimming and track, The cars in recent years were neither fast nor furious.
“I apologise to the fans for the last five or six years that they saw horrible cars,” Alonso said, adding that the new cars allow drivers “to express your driving style” and not have to hold back as they did before in order to save their tires.
Valtteri Bottas, Rosberg’s replacement at Mercedes, was quickest through the first four days of testing, setting the fastest time since layout changes were made at the Barcelona track a decade ago.
Bottas said that he and the rest of the field had gone through more rigorous workouts over the winter to prepare for the more difficult drives. Britain is a powerhouse in cycling and rowing.
“A number of our sports have said they are interested in doing it and the concept is based around a home-and-away series, every two years, as we see in the world of golf,” Sweeney said.
The Ryder Cup was as a USBritain contest until 1979 when players from across Europe were also welcomed.
British Olympic sports have
“I modified my training regime to fit to the requirements of the new cars and its G-forces,” Bottas said. “And it worked well, as I felt super in the car right away.”
Felipe Massa, who briefly retired after last season only to be lured back to Williams after Bottas left, said that his focus was on keeping in better shape.
“I took a new trainer straight away and immediately started to train hard every day. I’m working and training more than ever,” Massa said. “And I am 35 years old so need to train even more. That was a big task. But when you decide to come back you have to do it in a proper way.” had their funding cut from UK Sport, despite the country finishing second in Rio, because of a decline in National Lottery sales.
The sports showdown with the United States could plug further funding shortfalls in the future. European Olympic rights holder Eurosport and American broadcaster NBC are involved in the planning discussions.
What is still to be seen is if the faster speeds that drivers relish will translate to more exciting races for those watching from the stands and on television.
Wider cars that take up more track could hinder overtaking, and leave F1 with the nagging problem of boring races of the best cars speeding away from the pack.
Hamilton also has his doubts about the new cars really leading to change because this season’s more resistant tires will mean fewer pit stops, and thus fewer breaks in the flow of the race.
Whether Hamilton is correct will be seen on 26 March at the seasonopening Australian Grand Prix.
“(It) will give us another opportunity to generate additional revenue that we can pump back into the system,” Sweeney said. “It’s a very live conversation but, like most things, when you try to set them up there are lots of negotiations that need to happen.”
The Americans won 121 Olympic medals in Rio, while Britain collected 67 for its bestperformance outside London.