F1
No, Domenicali doesn't really want to eliminate free practice in F1
Stefano Domenicali has made a name for himself in Portugal. © Xavi Bonilla / DPPI
It was a little sentence that ignited the situation. Present on the Portimão side (Portugal) where the Moto GP inaugurated last weekend his first sprint race of the year after having decided that there would now be as many as Grands Prix, Stefano Domenicali was the author of a declaration which has since set the Twittersphere ablaze.
“I am in favor of canceling free practice sessions, which are of great use to engineers but which the public does not like”, he declared in substance to the official broadcaster about the Formula 1. Obviously, the sentence dropped by the Italian, former team principal Ferrari, was no less a way of making noise and launching the debate, than a real desire to ignore the three free practice sessions.
Free trials are essential
These sessions are obviously immensely important. Both for the engineers, who need this running to adjust the cars according to the characteristics of the circuit, the tarmac, and the track temperature, but also for the drivers, who must take their bearings and familiarize themselves with the track.
In addition, the drastic reduction in the number of pre-season tests and the elimination of tests during the year make it simply impossible to end free practice in F1.
Since his arrival at the head of F1, Liberty Media has launched the Netflix series drive to survive and introduced three then finally six sprint races per season and still seeks to continue its modernization process, particularly during weekends including a Sprint race, where there is one less practice session on the program.
Questions regarding weekend formats are on the table. © Florent Gooden / DPPI
With only a short session before qualifying during the Sprint weekends, the FOM particularly appreciates the fact that the intensity is increased tenfold and that there is something at stake from Friday.
This is also the meaning of Stefano Domenicali's words in Portugal. Try to make race weekends more attractive, at a time when the subject is being discussed during the F1 commissions.
Last year, the Italian had already opened the door to awarding points at the end of Free Practice sessions, opening the door to reverse grid races or total transformations of the weekends of Grand Prix with for example a qualification on an independent lap for the sprint race on Saturday.
There is a fine line between desirable modernization and the risk of breaking a model that works well. Be careful not to be too greedy!
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Jeremy Satis
Great F1 reporter & passionate about promotional formulas
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27/03/2023 at 02:59 a.m.
After the disappearance of private testing, the virtual elimination of winter testing, the registration of new Grand Prix in countries that are not very democratic and rotten with hard cash, the introduction of sprint races that are generally not very interesting, here is now the disappearance free trials! We escaped the inverted grid but Liberty Media still wants to innovate. Be careful not to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs by wanting to upset everything and removing certain historic GPs like Monza in favor of GPs in Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan or Dollaristan!!