Analysis: Typhoon Shows F1 Three Can Go into Two

Why take three days over something that can be done perfectly well in two, particularly if you want to cut costs and give fans more for their money?

The thought occurred to quite a few people at Suzuka last weekend as typhoon Ma-on blew out the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday forcing organisers to squeeze three days' action into two as qualifying was held on race day for the first time.

It was more frenetic and stressful for the mechanics, but television viewers, and certainly those thousands of miles away who got up to watch the penultimate race of the season before breakfast, would not have noticed much difference.

The race started on time and ended, inevitably, with Ferrari's Michael Schumacher taking the chequered flag. It was the same old same old, even if the world had gone to bed the night before without knowing who was on pole position.

"The question that everybody was asking on Sunday was whether it was possible to have a two-day race weekend," said French driver Olivier Panis, retiring after his last race for Toyota.

"We proved in Suzuka that it's certainly feasible, as everyone managed to do the job on Sunday. I certainly didn't find the solution ridiculous, although teams lose media coverage from qualifying and it gives teams an additional pressure.

"In Suzuka, we did a lot of work with the engineers based on the data from last year, as we hadn't done a single lap in the dry and that was the main problem," he added. "If there's one free practice on Saturday, then it's perfectly okay to do a two-day weekend."

More Races

With an unprecedented 19-race calendar for 2005 announced on Wednesday, even if the final version may end up shorter, next season promises to be an endurance test. Several bosses have said the current 18 races have already pushed staff to the limit.

The idea of condensing everything into two days, with Saturday set aside for practice before qualifying and the race on Sunday, is not a new one.

It has been mooted before as a cost-saving measure, with a suggestion that the Friday might be devoted to testing to replace the many costly hours that teams put in at deserted circuits during the course of the season.

Even if seven times champion Schumacher preferred the regular format, the alternative has powerful supporters.

"I think that if there was a wish to increase the number of races we have a year, then we should really look at the format," Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn said after Sunday's race.

"I think it's fair to say that Ferrari have been an advocate for two-day race meetings for quite a long time. We've always felt that three days may be too long and that Saturday and Sunday is perfectly adequate to have a good race meeting.

"I don't think that we need to have a three-day race meeting from a team perspective. From the promoters' perspective that may be different."

Bad Movie

At present, the Formula One action starts up for the public on Friday with two free practice sessions.

The media will by then have had a day at the circuit already, with news conferences and briefings scheduled on the Thursday, while teams will have been busy setting up from the start of the week.

The counter-argument to the shorter format inevitably comes down to money. Promoters have to pay hefty sums - Silverstone's owners have been asked to come up with some $15 million a race - for the rights that they can only try to recoup through ticket sales.

Teams also use the Friday to entertain sponsors and important guests.

Yet the public, who pay heavily for fleeting glimpses of the likes of Schumacher, can find themselves twiddling their thumbs for a large part of the day. Renault boss Flavio Briatore says they are being short-changed and a two-day programme could fix that.

"It's like a movie," he told Autosport magazine. "If you have material for a two-hour movie, it's a great movie - but you make it three hours, it's rubbish.

"We have the material for doing a two-hour event. Why do we need to spend three days on it? We need to concentrate on Saturday and Sunday, then everybody (can) go home."

For more on Two-Day Grands Prix, read this week's The Weekly Grapevine.