Teams Agree on One Qualifying Session in 2004

Formula One bosses have agreed to revamp the 2004 Grand Prix timetable by limiting qualifying to one expanded Saturday session and scrapping private testing at race weekends.

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart told Reuters after a meeting of the International Automobile Federation's (FIA) Formula One Commission on Friday that he was disappointed. "From the smaller teams' point of view, there's nothing in it for us," he said.

Stoddart said the commission, which includes the 10 team bosses, had agreed to scrap Friday's qualifying in exchange for allowing the bottom six teams to run a third car in free practice that day.

The decisions must still be passed by the governing body's World Motor Sport Council later this month.

Free Practice

Friday free practice would be from 11:00 to 12:00 and from 14:00 to 15:00 local time, filling the space used by first qualifying this year.

Saturday's qualifying would be expanded to run from 14:00 to 15:30, with morning free practice as usual, and each driver having two timed laps instead of just one at present.

Stoddart said the starting order would be determined by the result of the previous race, rather than the Championship positions as happens now.

The driver with the slowest initial lap would then be first out for the decisive qualifying lap.

The Minardi boss said that format would penalise the smaller teams.

He feared that a driver like Ferrari's World Champion Michael Schumacher could start first and set the fastest time - giving him up to an hour and a half to tune his car for the second run while others had quicker turnarounds.

Stoddart said testing will be limited to 48 days per team during the season, which runs from March to October, with no limitations out of season.

There were no changes to the Sunday timetable.

Engine Rules

The rules covering engines are also due to change next year with teams limited to one engine per car for the weekend, which will be deemed to have started with Friday's first practice. In theory, that means an engine may have to last up to 700 km.

Sunday qualifying had been raised as an option by Formula one supremo Bernie Ecclestone but that was rejected by all teams.

Ecclestone had backed the idea to give spectators more for their money after changes introduced this year ended the usual Sunday warm-up session.

Small and big teams alike opposed the move.

"If we put qualifying on Sunday morning, there would be even less interest on Saturday," said BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen last weekend. "You want all the speculation on Saturdays.

Formula One changed the qualifying format this year to two sessions, the first on Friday and the second on Saturday, to shake up the sport after television audiences began to suffer from a year of Ferrari domination.

Previously, there was one hour-long session on Saturday, with drivers able to complete four flying laps at a time of their choosing.

Team bosses had also considered reverting to the previous free-for-all format on Friday, with the times dictating the starting order for Saturday's one-shot session.