We mentioned the call for a weekend shakeup in Formula 1. With rain and oil-soaked Friday practice sessions and no running until nearly qualifying, the tactical strategy has been compressed and some teams find it difficult to get it right. This has, in turn, produced different results from earlier this year and last.
I’ve seen some of the proposed changes and there are few that really interest me to be honest. I tend to think the program for Friday and Saturday could be improved with more and better support series and I am not alone in my assessment as the FIA president Jean Todt said:
“With as many people as we have, and as many ideas as we have, it is something we have been discussing,” said Todt.
“But so far we haven’t had any proposal we have found to be better than the existing situation.
“If there was a proposal that clearly demonstrated it was a step forward then we are not against it.
“Also, I’m not a promoter, and you must look at it from a promoter’s point of view because they are the ones who finance the weekends.
“Every time you say to a promoter ‘Shorten your race weekend’ they are against it.”
Ultimately,and I’ve argued this as well, you have to look at the promoter and the money they spend to host F1. Making it a compressed event brings fewer folks to the circuit so it is important to get a full weekend of racing in order to appeal to attendance.
Todt used Mexico as an example of massive turnout on Friday but that may not be the best litmus test if I’m honest. If Mexico is still pulling 85,000 people on Friday in 5 years, then maybe there is something to be learned and that may be only unique to Mexico or Mexico City too.
Regardless, the question of what to do about Friday and Saturday continues but changing F1 to tie all three days to the actual race on Sunday could make the entire week competitive and crucial. Also, using Friday’s for testing has also been suggested.
Hat Tip: AUTOSPORT
The Friday sessions have 2 problems: 1. resource limitation on engines and tyres 2. (normally) they don’t count in any shape or form, Introducing of an extra tyre set for the first 30 minutes of FP1 clearly helped, maybe more can be done in that respect. However as soon as the teams think, Fridays weather conditions are completely different from Saturday/Sunday, they won’t go out. How many deserted tracks have we seen on a wet Friday? Only solution would be to make the sessions somehow count. Maybe get rid of Q1 on Saturday an let that be decided on Fridays… Read more »
Back in that fancast, I mentioned the idea of letting the third / reserve / test drivers go out in their own race for the purpose of gaining valuable race experience. Why not assign points to the results and have it count toward the constructors championship? That way, the teams have something to play for. You can do this on a Friday or a Saturday, possibly when there’s not much going on.
What makes me laugh is that teams bitch about not having any in season testing then stay in the garage during most of friday when they have an excellent opportunity to get some running in.
Open slather testing on Friday morning followed by fp1. Fp2 & 3 on Saturday. Qualifying Sunday morning followed by the race.