F1 Bosses Ponder Sunday Qualifying Proposal

Formula One team bosses are considering an informal cost-cutting proposal to condense the Grand Prix weekend and have final qualifying on the morning of the race itself.

"It's a good idea, isn't it," said Eddie Jordan of a proposal put forward by his own director of race engineering Gary Anderson.

"Can you imagine 9.30 qualifying (on a Sunday morning) and the race five hours later?," added the Irish entrepreneur at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday. "What's wrong with that? It's fantastic."

Jordan said he would like to see Friday dedicated to testing, rather than practice and first qualifying under a new format introduced this year, with teams banned from more than 20 days of tests during the season.

The rules are due to change again in 2004, with teams limited to one engine per driver per weekend rather than as many as they want before Saturday's final qualifying at present.

Under the proposal, those restrictions would not apply to Friday testing - meaning that an engine would have to last for two days rather than three.

"We would have to be careful that we don't have a whole lot of test team cars. You have to use the cars that you are going to use for the weekend," said Jordan.

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart said the proposal had been mentioned at a meeting of team bosses and technical directors with the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) last Tuesday.

"It's informal at the moment but it's been circulated and it undoubtedly will be discussed at the next team owners' meeting," said Stoddart. "But I'm not so sure it's that easy in my mind to change the race weekend."

Ferrari have extensive test facilities and the major manufacturers, with the exception of Renault, this season turned down an option to limit testing in exchange for a two hour private session on the Friday before a race.

The Tuesday meeting agreed to allow the continuation of traction control in exchange for an agreement that low-cost engines be made available to all teams by engine manufacturers.

"Two-day weekends would no doubt save money but there are other issues here about contractual commitments with the promoters and I don't think we are quite at that stage yet," said Stoddart.

"The final format, if indeed anything comes out of it (the proposal), may look a bit different to that."

Extensive changes have been introduced this season to cut soaring costs and raise flagging television audiences after a 2002 season dominated by Ferrari.