Talking Point: Friday bloody Friday

21/07/2006

For several years there has been talk of turning Grand Prix weekends into two-day events. Originally this was in order that the calendar could be expanded to 20-plus races, but in recent times the emphasis has shifted to curbing costs.

In terms of action, little happens on GP Fridays, partly due to the two-race engine rule, which means that many drivers opt to conserve their engines, and partly due to the amount of testing, both on track and in the factory.

For 2007, the third driver has been scrapped, which means we are likely to see even less action. However, as we recently reported, this is going to have an adverse effect on job prospects for up and coming drivers.

Following our piece, we were contacted by an insider at one of the leading teams, and his suggestions are as follows:

Do test sessions next year on Fridays.

Don't allow the race drivers to participate but do allow two test drivers.

That way the race drivers do promotion and media during the lunch break - call it a "Fans' Friday".

The test drivers get miles and exposure.

Then the race boys do one, one-hour session on Saturday to set the car up and go from there into qually...

Makes sense for everybody. Apart from team bosses!

At least you maintain jobs and opportunities for that next generation to really show their stuff in comparable conditions... and impress watching team bosses.

Now this makes perfect sense to Pitpass, but when did anything in F1 really make perfect sense?

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