F1 Friday Practice to be Discontinued in Future?

According to Ross Brawn, Formula 1 could say farewell to F1 Friday practice in favour of more grand prix. As Formula 1’s sporting boss, Brawn is looking at various ways of making the sport more appealing to teams.  One issue that many teams face is money and the ever-increasing cost of competing in F1.

Liberty Media could try reduce that by cancelling F1 Friday practice sessions, which would also give them some leeway to add more races. Brawn revealed “The teams have logistical issues the more races we add.  One of the things we are doing is looking at the format of a race weekend to see if we need to change that to make it logistically easier for them to do more races.  So we have got a very open mind about how we go forward.  I think the core race is still, for me personally, very important. We are not looking at changing the core event, but open question, do we need Friday running? Because if we didn’t have Friday running, we could do more races because logistically it is better for the teams.

Cancelling F1 Friday Practice – Good or Bad?

However, Brawn said that there was a down-side to doing away with F1 Friday practice. He says that Friday running is important for the promoters and the broadcasters. and it allows teams to test various setups and find the perfect strategies. So the big question on Brawn’s mind is, “How do we find the right solution?”. Fans may find it boring to see cars simply circulating around on track and with no racing. But for the teams, Friday practice is crucial as it allows them to test the car or new upgrades. Another reason why they support Friday practice sessions is because it gives new drivers an opportunity to run.

Liberty is considering shaking up the sport’s traditional weekend format. In Austin, the pre-race proceedings were suddenly changed when the pitlane was opened earlier to allow legendary announcer Michael Buffer to introduce the drivers in Indy 500 style. Not just that, Usain Bolt spiced up the waving of the green flag.

Liberty’s F1 commercial boss Sean Bratches said “We want formula one to cross the boundary between sport and show”. Now, the next innovations are being planned and Germany’s Bild newspaper reports that another idea being discussed is a shake-up of the traditional ‘two by two’ formation on the race grid. The report said the grid rows in the future could alternate between two and three cars, increasing competition and the risk of a crash. F1 chief executive Chase Carey said “We are looking for ways to offer fans more”.