2-Day Format for F1?

[gloomyDAY]

I really liked the fact that we had a rain delay at the Japanese GP.

Why? Well, I think having qualifying and racing on the same day is fantastic! Instead of having Friday and Saturday practice before qualifying and the race, F1 should practice all day Saturday, qualify on Sunday morning, and then race on Sunday afternoon. Maybe even a practice session between qualifying and the race on Sunday.

*flame-suit ON*

[Koz]

Practice session between quali and race? And all on the same day???!
Your time in the army has, sir, driven you as insane as SD.

[Ranger]

With no in-season testing they need all the practice sessions they can get.

Keep the format as it is... although I would like to see a Sunday morning warmup.

[jonny hurlock]

don't like the idea, hated the idea in 2005 with qualifying and race on the same day for a few races, don't even think about it Bernie!

[gloomyDAY]

That's not a bad idea Malllen. Having an extra practice session before Sunday's race. I just think that there are too many gaps in the weekend and leaves something to be desired.


Your time in the army has, sir, driven you as insane as SD. :laugh: I certainly hope not!

[Valve Bounce]

Now why didn't Bernie think of this? :p :

[Koz]

Meh. So drivers end up doing 15-200 odd laps in a day? Most of them before the race?

People end up losing the whole day to F1 every other week, which will make broadcasters less inclined to broadcast EVERYTHING about F1, you can't jeopardize all other sports on channel for a whole day's F1, it'll end up shown as much as the WRC.

And lest we forget, do people have all sunday day to watch F1?
It would also really mess up the hours even more.

It doesn't make financial sense.

[nigelred5]

I'd like a return to a morning warm up again, especially when weather and track conditions can change so much from saturday qually to race time. I really don't care for the whole parc ferme' situation after quallys. It really hasn't changed the grid or improved the races at all and I question what if any it has truly saved teams monitarily. Once you have a poor qually or make a poor set up decision, you're essentially screwed the remainder of the weekend.

[call_me_andrew]

Both Bernie and the promoters would hate this idea. It's one less day they can charge admission for.

A better move would be to allow open testing the Thursday before or the Monday after select races. This allows for all the data of in-season testing without the cost of travel.

[Valve Bounce]

How about eliminating qualifying, and use all times from P1, P2 and P3 to decide the grid. Now that would make everyone serious during all sessions.

[call_me_andrew]

If it's serious, in what manner is it practice?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exOxUAntx8I

[Dr. Krogshöj]

I knew this would pop up. It did back after the 2004 Japanese GP and what happened? F1 introduced Sunday morning qualifying for 2005. It was such a failure that it was abandoned by Monaco. Bringing back Sunday morning warm-up would be good but the fate of pole position must be decided on Saturday so that people actually pay attention.

[Mark]

Yep the problem in 2005 was that nobody wanted to cover the morning session on TV so it failed. However a 2 day
format by just abandoning Friday practice.

[Daika]

Bad idea because it won't be good for tv audiance. Japanese time and Europe time means lack of sleep and prime time tv.

[ioan]

Practice session between quali and race? And all on the same day???!
Your time in the army has, sir, driven you as insane as SD.

Where did he say that?!
You should comment only after reading carefully. Maybe some time in the army would help you out? :p

BTW, I only watch quali and race anyway so a 1 day format would suit me perfectly, and if they would have both quali and race on Saturday it would be the best!

[Allyc85]

I bet the ticket prices wouldnt go down if they reduced it to two days and the fans seem to slowly see less of the cars as the years pass, especially with these engine restrictions.

[maximilian]

Somehow I would hate to see the F1 weekend shrink to just 2 days. I am always excited when practice begins on Fridays, and hate to think I'd have to wait til Saturday. Instead I am with those who like the idea of Thursday additional practice, and I'd love to see them bring back 3rd drivers for that. I am torn between whether they should just let all teams use 3 drivers, or only the bottom x teams as they did in the past. Or perhaps let each team use ONLY their test driver on Thursday...?

[Koz]

Where did he say that?!
You should comment only after reading carefully. Maybe some time in the army would help you out? :p



I really liked the fact that we had a rain delay at the Japanese GP.

Why? Well, I think having qualifying and racing on the same day is fantastic! Instead of having Friday and Saturday practice before qualifying and the race, F1 should practice all day Saturday, qualify on Sunday morning, and then race on Sunday afternoon. Maybe even a practice session between qualifying and the race on Sunday.

Ahem. Ahem.

You should comment only after reading carefully. :p

[V12]

Thumbs down from me. It would feel weird not going to bed Saturday night (well Sunday morning) not knowing how they were going to line up.

I would however, like to see the Sunday warm-up return. It used to give a good indicator of who was looking strong in race trim, and with in-season testing banned they can't wheel out the tired old "cost cutting" excuse for this one, although they probably will.

Ditch parc ferme regs while we're at it.

[ArrowsFA1]

People end up losing the whole day to F1 every other week, which will make broadcasters less inclined to broadcast EVERYTHING about F1, you can't jeopardize all other sports on channel for a whole day's F1, it'll end up shown as much as the WRC..


Both Bernie and the promoters would hate this idea. It's one less day they can charge admission for.
Good points, and the main reasons I suspect this idea won't happen.

[ioan]

Ahem. Ahem.

You should comment only after reading carefully. :p

:D

[jens]

I personally wouldn't like to have qualifying sessions to be organized on Sundays. IMO it's a perfect build-up for Sunday's race to have it a day earlier - going to sleep with the knowledge of the grid order. :) And on some occasions it may be too time-consuming to have both qualifying and race on the same day. In Japan's case it was a nightmare situation for sleeping and I indeed didn't watch qualifying at all.

[maximilian]

One problem I see with same day qualifying is, since we no longer employ spare cars, if someone crashes the car in qualifying, they may well end up DNS for the race if they can't fix it in time... seems a bit harsh, at least with the "franchise" system of 24 cars. If we had 30+ cars trying to qualify for 26 spots, then I'd maybe not mind so much, but losing a car or 2 of the grid of 24 from the get-go would be less than ideal.

[emporer_k]

I have to work one Saturday in 4 so moving Quali to Sunday mourning would have it's advantages but I'd still prefer Qualifying to take place on the saturday.

The 2 day format may work if there were 2 practice sesssions before quali on Saturday with teams able to enter a 3rd car in practice.

[Easy Drifter]

Might I suggest everyone think it through.
At almost, if not all, there are support races. In Europe GP2 and 3. Just because they are not telivised does not mean there is not something for people at the track who have paid big bucks to see the happening.
Then at track X where the race is happening for the first time the Sat. practice is rained out.
Qualifying starts Sunday with no one ever have been on track before. No real idea of tire wear, fuel consumption except from the computer, assuming the programming was right.
Maybe some of you want to see that kind of chaos but I don't.

[Ari]

Absolutely no chance! Would lose BILLIONS in TV time as the difference in time (10am to 2pm) between Quali and Race would exclude different world-wide markets.

I love the current format in just about everything. Only thing I'd change is the no re-fueling. I loved re-fueling.

[Duchess]

Might I suggest everyone think it through.
At almost, if not all, there are support races. In Europe GP2 and 3. Just because they are not telivised does not mean there is not something for people at the track who have paid big bucks to see the happening.

This was my main thought. I love seeing the support races and with a 2-day format it would just be ridiculous. F1 is already a big circus but it doesn't need encouraging!

[Mia 01]

I would like tests om mondays to, and, no cutting or the race weekends, I prefer them extended.

[Easy Drifter]

Again think it through.
Test on Monday. That is assuming you do not have a crashed car to repair.
At best it needs hours of work after a race and likely an engine change.
Next race might be next weekend and hundreds of miles away and practice starts on Fri.
Almost impossible logistics plus totally wiped out mechanics.
If a car breaks or crashes on the Monday and has to be on track on Fri. hundreds of miles away when does it get fixed?
It is bad enough now.
I have been there and it ain't effing fun.
Leave right after a race on Sunday night late after packing up still filthy and stinking. Drive till 1 or 2 am. Crash at a 2 bit motel along with other teams. Hot water runs out before everyone gets a very needed shower. Only food day old sandwiches. Up at 5 or 6 am and start driving. About 8 maybe find some greasy truck stop open to get something to eat. Lunch break maybe or maybe not. Depending on time maybe just take out coffee and a crappy pre made sandwhich.
Stop somewhere about 7 or 8 and hope to get some sleep after maybe a good meal or maybe not. Possibly a decent shower if you have enough energy and a semi decent hotel/motel.
Sometime very late Tues. or maybe early Wed. arrive at next track. Even if no problems car needs total overhaul before going on track first thing Fri.
And you want to move everything 24 hours later?
These freaking cars do not magically fix themselves.
After races two weeks in a row hundreds of miles apart I have been a walking zombie by Sunday night.
Party? All I wanted to do was sleep in a real bed after a decent shower or better yet a long hot bath. Even food was secondary.
Geez isn't glamourous to be a professional racing mechanic and travel all over the world.
I lasted 7 years before I burned out. After 3 years went back and lasted 6 months.
Then did 10 years in non pro racing and quit when my driver did. We got married a year later.
Just the same it was fun much of the time but glamourous it ain't!
The pit popsies are not interested in the mechanics. Well there are exceptions :D if you are not too beat. ;)

[ShiftingGears]

I think Sunday morning warm-up would be a big hit for race day fans. It means the grand prix weekend gets filled out with something valuable, rather than totally abhorrent celebrity driver races.

[ArrowsFA1]

Formula 1 teams are considering ways to revamp race weekends to try and make them more attractive for fans - and have even discussed the prospect of reducing them to two-day events.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87441

[gloomyDAY]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87441Told you so! :p

I should be a marketing man for F1.

[Koz]

Told you so! :p

I should be a marketing man for F1.


think it [two-day format] worked well in difficult conditions in Japan, but what could be looked at perhaps is to condense Friday.


Nothing has been said about Qualifying on Sundays.

You can't change how things are, quali on saturday, race on sunday. That is how it is for almost every racing series in the world. IT will NOT change in the foreseeable future.

GP2 has quali on firday, and races over the weekend. How would changes to F1 effect this? Kill it off?

Will F1 Teams abandon the current practice sessions to when there is already no testing anyway? Will the driver be happy pulling 200 laps on raceday?

If there is an incident, will teams be able to recover in 4-5 hours as opposed to a day?

If there is a warmup session and something happens, driver out of the race.

F1 has coverage and viewer-ship because the main show is short and decisive. Maybe you watch practice sessions, I personally don't. I care about race and qualifying, and I think there are many people on the same boat as me.
There are even more people who only care about the race.

It would work well if there were <5 races a year, people would tune it, it would be special. But having 20 races a year, that's 20 weekend, half a year. Sometimes constitutive weekends stolen by F1.

Tell you what, Manchester United is worth more than F1. F1 isn't the end all and be all sport in the world, I for instance do not get regular F1 coverage on Sky in NZ, I would have to pay for an extra (not included in the normal sports package) sports channel just to make sure I have F1 every time it's on.

I and most people in the world (retired people and Monaco resident excluded), who have lives outside of F1 and TV, usually don't have 10 straight hours to spend in front of the TV, especially on the weekend. We go out, do things and see people which we couldn't do on the weekdays.

For "race-day" fans, well bro, if you're going to go to a GP, why would you want everything in the same day?
Wouldn't you rather see the full spectacle?
F1 race, quali and maybe even practice, WITH GP2 thrown in for the mix?

You would really rather have just one day, a bit of chaos, end of story? Really?

Look at Le Mans, how much coverage does it have?
Because it's a long race and takes up the whole day, so the broadcasters cut it up and show bits here and there. Is this what you want for F1?

[Mark]

Radcial proposal, but how about we leave things as they are? Seems to work ok.

[steveaki13]

Radcial proposal, but how about we leave things as they are? Seems to work ok.

Enough of this out of the box thinking. We can't keep up. ;)