Reuters reported on Wednesday that Petronas was working on the return of the Sepang circuit to the Formula 1 calendar. Executives of the oil company, which also owns the circuit, held a meeting in which they discussed the organization of a Grand Prix.
The plan was so concrete that the director, Tengku Muhammad Taufik Tengku Aziz, shared what the project looked like during a presentation at the Kuala Lumpur headquarters last Tuesday. All this was welcomed by fans of the category, as it would be the return of a modern classic, but hopes were dashed as Petronas categorically denied any rumors of a possible return of the Circus.
“We would like to confirm that there are no discussions regarding the return of Formula 1 to the Petronas Sepang International Circuit,” the company's website reads.
The statement puts to rest the idea of returning to the Southeast Asian circuit for the first time since 2017. Before that, it had been raced there every year since 1999 and had produced many spectacular races, such as the one won by Fernando Alonso in the rain in 2012 or the one interrupted three years earlier when Kimi Raikkonen got out of the car to eat an ice cream.
We also witnessed what could have been the indirect epilogue of the battle for the 2016 world championship, as Lewis Hamilton was on the verge of winning the GP, but his engine failure gave Nico Rosberg hope of winning. the title.
Furthermore, it allowed Daniel Ricciardo to return to the top step of the podium after a tough fight against Max Vertappen, who also set the record of the youngest driver to score points in a Grand Prix at Sepang in 2015.
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