{"id":11296,"date":"2011-03-01T06:56:16","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T11:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=11296"},"modified":"2011-03-01T06:56:16","modified_gmt":"2011-03-01T11:56:16","slug":"f1-should-press-rain-button-during-races-ecclestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/f1-should-press-rain-button-during-races-ecclestone\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 should press &#8216;rain button&#8217; during races &#8211; Ecclestone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>F1 officials should have a &#8216;rain button&#8217; to ensure excitement during a grand prix.<\/p>\n<p>That was the suggestion of the sport&#8217;s famous chief executive Bernie Ecclestone during a typically controversial interview.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are race tracks that you can make artificially wet and it would be easy to have such systems at a number of tracks,&#8221; the 80-year-old told F1&#8217;s official website.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Maybe with a two minute warning ahead of it.\u00a0 Suspense would be guaranteed and it would be the same for all,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Ecclestone agreed with his protege Sebastian Vettel that the adjustable rear wings, set to debut in 2011 to help boost overtaking, might not be the best idea.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To me this system looks pretty dangerous,&#8221; said the Briton.\u00a0 &#8220;What if the wings are not up again before the corner and the driver is lacking downforce?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ecclestone also said he thinks he could have prevented Robert Kubica&#8217;s horror rally crash without forbidding the Pole from indulging in dangerous off-track hobbies.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would have told him &#8216;Listen, you are rallying next week so I guess you are a bit too tired for the test on the following weekend.\u00a0 So let&#8217;s have your teammate and the reserve man do the sessions.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Do you think he would have taken the chance to rally?\u00a0 I don&#8217;t think so,&#8221; said F1&#8217;s so-called &#8216;supremo&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Ecclestone also said a decision about whether the Bahrain grand prix can be rescheduled this year, possibly at the end of the season or perhaps even during the August &#8216;break&#8217;, will need to be made soon.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have already spoken with FIA president Jean Todt about the possibility of finding a new date and we both agreed that a decision has to be made before the season starts,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>He played down rumours a European venue, such as Alcaniz in Spain, could stand in for F1&#8217;s twentieth race.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t need an alternative race anywhere in Europe or any other place,&#8221; insisted Ecclestone.\u00a0 &#8220;We need a race in Bahrain.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think the teams are sensible enough even to race in Bahrain in the summer break, and despite high temperatures, because this is the way we can support the country,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #888888;\"><em>\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>F1 officials should have a &#8216;rain button&#8217; to ensure excitement during a grand prix. That was the suggestion of the sport&#8217;s famous chief executive Bernie Ecclestone during a typically controversial interview. &#8220;There are race tracks that you can make artificially wet and it would be easy to have such systems at a number of tracks,&#8221; &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[2120,3],"tags":[59,5262,5300,5340,284],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11297,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11296\/revisions\/11297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}