The 2021 F1 calendar start times have been published, with Grands Prix starting on the hour instead of ten minutes past, like last year.
Now I’m not bothered by the ten minutes but what I am very disappointed in is losing a full hour of F1 on-track action with the series reducing both FP1 and FP2 by 30 minutes.
Congratulations, F1 has found a way to run even less and give us even less action over a weekend. Very disappointing. Here is the press release:
The Formula 1 season will officially kick off in Bahrain on March 26 with Friday’s opening free practice session beginning at 1430 local time. Both FP1 and FP2 have traditionally been 90 minutes apiece, but from this season onwards they will be reduced to 60 minutes each – the same as Saturday’s FP3 session.
That one-hour reduction in practice time will force the teams to cram in more on-track action to get their cars in the set-up sweet spot for qualifying and the race.
I missed the part where F-1 TV subscription and ticket prices have been reduced to match. Will the pre-event political and social justice portions be reduced? One more nail in the coffin.
Yea, I don’t get it. Honestly, they have the track. Why not give fans more time to see the cars go round? If they want less predictability, then they should have really got rid of FP3 instead.
No surprise that the FIA cave in to whatever the teams want.