The cultural spectacle promoted by the owner of Formula 1 (Liberty Media) for years threatens the format of the Great Friday. Stefano Domenicali, CEO of F1, attended the MotoGP premiere in Portugal and spoke to the Portuguese channel SportTV in which he reviewed the week (Sunday, Australian GP, 7:00 a.m.): “I am a supporter. Canceling the free use of engineers is very useful, but the public does not like it.
Of course, it is not that Formula 1 intends to abolish one of the three days of action for each isolated GP, but to rebuild a new format for the current one. He wants to promote the competition, with an uncertain outcome and reward points every day the car goes out on the track. As it is not done now.
In the current figure, the three free practice sessions (two on Friday, one on Saturday morning) have a relative value for the state, because the stop times in the car do not usually reflect the true potential.
This one is kept to determine the day of the Sabbath and the race on Sunday. And they have turned into a test bench for engineers over the years, a profession that dominates F1 in all its categories (aeronautical, mechanical, electronic…).
Teams, usually made up of mechanics in the shape of a “main team”, test sessions (lasting one hour) are vital to film cars and have access to working strategies with different sums per class. (13, two silver -hard-, three yellow -medium- and eight red -soft-).
But in the fan who pays attention to the laps or distance follower, they mean something else: many moments of laziness on the tarmac, drivers waiting for their turn to go out on the track after deliberations and tests, interruptions not fully understood and much more. secrecy in the natural and legitimate plans of the teams. There is no result in nothing, that result is no result at all.
The current model reduces the uncertainty of the races, because the teams have three hours of three sessions to adjust the car’s laps and have a better performance. There is little margin for error.
The introduction of sprint courses (mini-races of 100 kilometers on Saturdays that determine the points and performance for Sunday) generated more movements in the weekend, another uncertainty and caused more failures in the teams. In teaching, more equality, even if in 2022 Verstappen’s regime was insulting.
“In the tation of the weekend, to give points for each session, or to qualify individual laps or to qualify for a different shorter race on Saturday, instead of FP3, perhaps working out a mechanism in reverse.”, before Sunday in Corriere della Sera.
