'Liberty should scrap Friday practice sessions'

  • Published on 01 Feb 2017 10:51
  • 10
  • By: Rob Veenstra

F1 should shake up its weekend format by eliminating the Friday practice sessions. That is the view of Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul, when asked by the French magazine Auto Hebdo what Liberty Media should do after taking over the sport and ousting Bernie Ecclestone.

"Liberty Media should be given a few months to analyse the situation," he said, "before it can comment on this issue. But generally, the current format of the race weekend has to change. Friday practice does not play any role. We need to think about this, because there are ways to make formula one more dynamic without spending money and without affecting the structure of the teams," Abiteboul added. (GMM)

Replies (10)

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  • bremgarten

    Posts: 38

    Cyril,
    Don't call us. We'll call you.

    • + 1
    • Feb 1 2017 - 11:02
  • Kevin

    Posts: 5,341

    Agreed. Never watch these practice sessions, get rid of it.

    • + 0
    • Feb 1 2017 - 16:10
  • Im mixed with this, but I think he is right. FP1 at least is generally considered pointless anyway, so they might aswell scrap that session.

    • + 0
    • Feb 1 2017 - 20:32
  • For those of us attending, it's very enjoyable and an opportunity to scope out the cars without the milling throng of quali and race day. Boring as hell for the TV crowd, sure, but an enjoyable Friday for those attending in person. Does it also not afford the teams some set-up time for the actual site?

    • + 0
    • Feb 1 2017 - 21:45
  • bremgarten

    Posts: 38

    The Friday practice sessions are important.
    This is the period where the teams fine-tune the cars and their strategy for the track, temperature and weather.

    • + 0
    • Feb 1 2017 - 22:13
  • Friday sessions are very important, I always enjoy getting up to watch them it'd be a shame to lose them

    • + 0
    • Feb 1 2017 - 23:10
  • RacetoWin

    Posts: 95

    friday practice should be testing and devolpment sessions infront of the public, open 2 shr windows for testing without engine and transmission restrictions or penalties.

    friday is needed also to rubber in the track.

    getting rid of fridays is going the wrong direction. young develoment drivers would also lose they're driving time.

    • + 0
    • Feb 2 2017 - 00:49
    • bremgarten

      Posts: 38

      Nice points, I totally agree.

      • + 0
      • Feb 2 2017 - 06:25
  • Teams don't go out there because they have to preserve their precious resources, tyres, engine, parts and rebuild times from costly crashes or offtrack excursions. Obviously the solution here is not to let everyone go at it in free-for-all style, that just makes the costs higher as the rich teams will have more on track action while the not so rich stay indoors most of the time.

    Eliminate one FP session on Saturday.

    Having one session on Friday and another one Saturday will help teams if one of the sessions becomes a total waste to due horrid weather.

    There is another problem most are overlooking. The 3 day event brings in a lot of business to the shops and restaurants around the track area. If there is no action on Friday those businesses stand to lose big time.

    • + 1
    • Feb 2 2017 - 06:29
  • Teams don't go out there because they have to preserve their precious resources, tyres, engine, parts and rebuild times from costly crashes or offtrack excursions. Obviously the solution here is not to let everyone go at it in free-for-all style, that just makes the costs higher as the rich teams will have more on track action while the not so rich stay indoors most of the time.

    Eliminate one FP session on Saturday.

    Having one session on Friday and another one Saturday will help teams if one of the sessions becomes a total waste to due horrid weather.

    There is another problem most are overlooking. The 3 day event brings in a lot of business to the shops and restaurants around the track area. If there is no action on Friday those businesses stand to lose big time.

    • + 0
    • Feb 2 2017 - 06:29
    • Vet5

      Posts: 225

      Agree'd! Bin practice 2 on saturdays!

      • + 0
      • Feb 2 2017 - 14:51

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