Talks ongoing over possible changes to F1 weekend format
Toto Wolff has confirmed discussions remain ongoing over potential changes to the current Formula 1 weekend format, although he feels many opinions should be canvassed before any alterations are made
The current three-day plan has long been a topic of debate, and while there are those who feel it needs tweaking, others like Wolff feel it is part of F1's DNA.
Wolff, though, is not averse to change, particularly from what he has seen in the DTM once an ideal compromise was reached.
"It's a difficult one," said Wolff, when asked by Autosport whether F1's current set up was in need of a makeover.
"Yes, there are discussions taking place, but it's a bit split.
"You've one group - and I'm in that camp - that says Formula 1 is a known product.
"We have two sessions on Friday, a session on Saturday morning, qualifying and the race on Sunday.
"It's like a 90-minute football game and we should stick with that.
"You don't want to just jump into a weekend format with just Saturday and Sunday.
"The good thing is I've seen it in DTM where we changed things in order to reduce the cost.
"We went to a two-day race format, but you kind of had the feeling it wasn't having the full value anymore.
"So we went back to running cars on Friday and changed the rules to having two qualifying sessions, one on Saturday morning and one on Sunday morning, and a race in the afternoon and it was actually quite an exciting development.
"So yes there are discussions, but I'm honestly not sure what the right way forward is.
"Do we want to have qualifying races, reverse grids?
"But whatever is discussed it ends up in the public and there is a big backlash of people saying these guys in the Strategy Group are insane.
"So it's probably worth exploring what people think would be right to develop the sport and making it more attractive."
Nico Hulkenberg recently remarked there should be less practice with Lewis Hamilton also suggesting tweaks should be made to make F1 weekends more exciting.
"As a Formula 1 fan, 1000 per cent [agreement there should be a change]," said Hamilton.
"It's been the same Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday for the whole nine years I've been in F1.
"I don't know what the solution is. Many of us could come up with an idea, but 99 per cent of them would not be so good."
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