The formula 1 world race week returns this week after a hiatus of almost 2 weeks and will resume at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne it has fans got excited but there is one thing that is making more headlines which is that current F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has made some bold statements which can have huge repercussions for the sport in the future.
Stefano’s statement at the Portugal Moto GP
Stefano Domenicali has repeated his desire to see practice sessions removed from the F1 race weekend structure.
At a normal Grand Prix, there are three practice sessions before qualifying on a Saturday and the main event on Sunday. That changes slightly when the Sprint format is being used, with one of those practice sessions sacrificed for a second, short-form race.
F1 chief executive Domenicali has admitted, though, that he would be happy to see practice disappear altogether. Speaking at the first MotoGP race weekend of the 2023 season, he asserted that fans watching on TV are generally not interested in watching those sessions.
Not the first time
It’s not the first time Domenicali has admitted a desire to greatly reduce the amount of practice teams will have ahead of a race. Last year, he suggested a proposal that would see the number of sessions reduced from three to just one in what he admitted would be a “very aggressive” move.
The former Scuderia Ferrari chief said: “I think to see from a fan perspective that every day there is something to fight for on the track is very important. Free practice is very interesting for the engineers or for the drivers. But at the end of the day, in sports, you need to fight for something.
It’s no secret Domenicali intends to carry on in this fashion. He explained his position on practice sessions to the media including race fans saying he would be “very aggressive” in pursuing a policy of having only one non-competitive practice session per race weekend.
Clarification from F1 officials
Taking his words at face value, this would obviously be deeply unpopular with grand prix promoters. A typical race weekend features three hours of practice, which can therefore last longer than competitive running. The longest race of 2023 so far took little more than an hour and a half, and by regulation, qualifying can last as little as 45 minutes.
An F1 spokesperson subsequently stressed their priority is not to do away with practice sessions but to make them more engaging. The series has already adjusted the balance between competitive and non-competitive track action in recent years.
In 2021, Friday’s practice sessions were cut back from 90 minutes each to 60, cutting total race weekend practice from four hours to three. At a selected number of other rounds, F1 went even further, introducing its divisive sprint race format. This effectively traded one practice session for a one-third-distance grand prix at three rounds. the reaction.
Reactions from fans
It would also increase the likelihood of a title being decided outside of a grand prix – something which became a more realistic possibility when sprint races were introduced two years ago. F1 further increased the chances of a championship being decided before the last race by doubling the number of sprint races and scheduling three in the final six rounds.
The challenges to this problem are similar to the still-unresolved problems with sprint races. While F1 has hyped the format to extremes, fans gave it a mixed reception, and the likes of ]Max Verstappen remain unconvinced of its merits. Several drivers last year urged F1 to end the practice of using the sprint races to decide the grand prix grid, but no change was made for this season.
Nonetheless, F1 says further changes to the sprint format remain under consideration in addition to Domenicali’s plans to enliven practice sessions. Whether any of this can be achieved without further lessening the status of a grand prix as “the most important part” of a round or making too great a demand of viewers’ time during a race weekend, remains to be seen.
As is already the case with sprint race qualifying sessions on Fridays, F1’s problem may not only be attracting the interest of viewers in the first place but failing to appreciate many people will not attempt to watch sessions while they are at work.
