Rosberg predicts future F1-Formula E merge

Rosberg predicts future F1-Formula E merge

Originally written by Joas van Wingerden. This version is a translation.

Monday 15 October 2018 19:09

Nico Rosberg predicts that Formula 1 and Formula E will join forces in a future that the former world champion believes will see F1 in its current guise become obsolete. F1's motorsport director Ross Brawn has already talked up the prospect of the sport turning electric in the future.

While car manufacturers the world over continue to develop greener methods of transport, the pinnacle of motorsport remains a gas-guzzling monster.

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Brawn said in August: "There is nothing to stop us having electric Formula 1 cars in the future."

Although the all-electric series' CEO Alejandro Agag has claimed F1 will not be able to encroach on his series unique selling point, F1's American owners Liberty Media already holds a shareholding in FE – something that Rosberg believes makes a merger even more likely.

"Maybe we will never even get to that point [that Formula E is bigger than F1] and we will just see a merger between Formula 1 and Formula E before that," Rosberg, himself a Formula E shareholder, told The Associated Press.

"When the moment comes that Formula 1 needs to go electric, which will happen, maybe you will just see a merger then.

"The step for Formula 1 to go electric will be a big and difficult one.

"If the whole world is selling and driving electric cars, it doesn't make sense for Formula 1 to be combustion engines, so that moment will come. The advantage is that Formula 1 and Formula E have the same owner."

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