I Would Prefer No Practice – Ricciardo

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo has pledged his support behind the idea of cutting the amount of practice. A number of Formula 1 drivers were also wary about the idea of doing two races per weekend.

The sport is discussing potential changes to race weekends in the future. These changes could include less practice time, shorter races and more than one race per weekend. On this subject, Ricciardo has supported reducing the four hours of practice drivers get at each grand prix.

“I would prefer no practice,” he said. “Qualify Saturday morning, race Saturday afternoon and race again Sunday. Less laps of nonsense and more laps of meaningful business.”

However he think that the sport needs to be cautious about entertaining radical changes. “I want to be serious, it’s obviously not the F1 everyone’s used to so you have to be careful with two races and all this.

“But I like racing, I don’t like practice so much. If it meant we could race more through a year and do less practice, that sounds good for me.”

Other drivers like Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly have spoken out against having two races per weekend.

“I’m not a big fan of it because since I’m born and I followed F1 it’s always been like this,” Gasly said. “One grand prix in a weekend and that’s the main event. You always wait [for] the race on Sunday.”

According to the Frenchman, the sport needs to improve other areas to attract the fans. “I don’t think that the main thing to look at at the moment. In terms of format, I think it’s pretty good.

“I’d rather give us more tyres in practice so we can be more out on track so I think the spectators will watch a bit more cars going around. But I think the format is great.

“I think overall it’s pretty good that they try to make the cars, all the teams, a bit closer in terms of performance so it becomes a bit less predictable. If they manage to get 10 cars every weekend with the chance to fight for the podium I think that will be amazing. That’s the main thing they should focus on. If they get 20 cars fighting for the podium that will be even better.”