Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Wolff wary of radical F1 format change like cutting Friday practice

Toto Wolff believes the DTM's experiment with shorter race weekends is a warning against a "radical" change to Formula 1's schedule like cutting out Friday practice

One of F1's proposals for future seasons is to shift Friday practice so it runs later, but it appears to have opted against a considerable reduction of track time or eliminating pre-weekend running entirely.

In recent years, grand prix weekends that have followed rain-hit Fridays have tended to produce more entertaining races, because teams have less data and are less prepared.

However, Mercedes F1 boss Wolff believes this is not necessarily an argument in favour of shortening race weekends, pointing to the DTM's short-lived elimination of Friday practice in 2013-14.

"We did that in the DTM many years ago and it felt like the weekend was not spectacular and special anymore," said Wolff.

"If it's cut short to two days it takes some value out of a race weekend and Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motor racing, and it's the world championship among engineers, drivers and the best teams.

"Therefore, that is a thing I wouldn't change - I would leave it [practice] on Friday."

A high-profile recent example of a Friday washout aiding the quality of the grand prix is last year's race in the United States (pictured above), which ended with three cars from three different teams using different strategies and finishing just a couple of seconds apart.

Wolff admitted it was possible that the amount of running on Friday directly correlated with the spectacle on Sunday.

"When you're not able to tune your car that well, then you have more gaps," he said.

"Whether that is the reason why some teams are falling away and others are doing better, I'm not entirely sure, but it could well be the case."

Though Wolff is in favour of retaining practice sessions on Friday, he is not against amending the format.

"What we can think about is cutting a session short on Friday or reducing the running time to 60 and 60 minutes rather than 90 minutes," he added.

"These are things that are worth considering but I wouldn't go for a radical cancellation of the Friday."

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Ferrari admits it should've focused on downforce with 2019 F1 car
Next article Verstappen: McLaren era gave Honda cautious F1 start with Red Bull

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe