The idea of a pure speed competition on Fridays is great, but it wouldn't mean anything if one or two teams won it the entire season.

Putting the drivers in equal cars is a great idea, though. That would be terrific to watch.

Awesome. Thanks for the video link! Such a race would be great on fridays

IMO lewis only does 1 run in Q1 and maybe Q2 simply because they fear getting penalised for "blocking"

dunno what they could do on friday to spice it up tbh, friday has always been a practise day

id like to keep qualy as it is now, more or less, probably drop the fuel load stuff in Q3, maybe have a superpole Q3.

bring back sunday warmup for people who didnt make q3, and give the bottom 5 from qualy more freedom todo what they want setup wise, q2 guys get some, q1 guys get really limited

I think this is mostly just "noise". The newly-created FOTA wants to be seen as "doing something"...

How about reversing the grid from previous race results and hold a 20 lap race on Friday or Saturday? Cash prize no points.

IMHO the idea in the original article is silly, but I do like some of the ideas posted in this thread by others:

1. No testing days mid-season with Fridays compensating. test drivers allowed and hopefully the spectacle of teams bringing new and exciting development parts/bodywork might spark some interest for fans and media.

2. Sprint race in equal cars between grand prix drivers on Friday, like posted in the youtube clip. Some drivers might take it seriously, some might not, but imagine the speculation it will feed on this BB over which drivers deserve which seats in the GP cars. Grid is decided by reverse of previous rounds results and winner gets to donate prize money to charity. Different cars each round to mix it up. Just picture Hamilton and Alonso trading paint in saloon cars without consequence to the championship.

3. Qualifying to stay as three part knock out but race fuel running abolished. Love it or hate it having three last minute mad scrambles per qualy is exciting and the buzz over big names possibly missing the cut is riveting. Q3 to remain low fuel running to see who is the fastest of the fastest. Remember some drivers and cars are better suited to one lap so they may qualify higher than another car which will be stronger in the race and promote overtaking. The current system rewards drivers able to string together one lap but the equally rewards cars which have strong race pace by placing them at the front=possible procession. Might also remove the ridiculous current scenario where the three slowest cars into Q3 are almost at a disadvantage to those in p11-13, where they can't compete with the quickest Q3 cars so have to fuel up to defend strategy wise from the one stoppers behind. How frustrating is it to see gun qualifiers like Trulli, Webber and Vettel have to fuel defensively and throw away chance of mixing it up with the big boys at the sharp end.

4. Warm up to return on Sundays. More action for fans at track, more TV action. If wet weather is predicted drivers have a chance to gamble on changing setup for the race. As all drivers can tune setup further in this session earlier weekend sessions may be more about one lap pace for qualy and produce more action. Who is fast in the warm up may fuel speculation as to who is on what strategy in the race.

Pros of changes:
-More on track action on Fridays, new parts, more drivers. Money saved by not having to fund testing teams and equipment, although some of those staff can attend for Fridays.
-Equal car competition for fans to really get behind their favourite drivers with benefits for charity.
-Qualifying back to fastest of the fastest.
-Fuel strategy doesn't disadvantage those fast enough for Q3 but not fast enough for first three rows.
-More on track action on Sundays

Cons:
-Knock-out qualy not loved by all.

Thanks for reading, feel free to add or argue.

I think that would be a great idea. They should do this... the manufacturer of the stock car should sponsor this. It would mean that the Manufacturer of the car gets exposure and the money raised can go to charity.

Imagine a grid of 22 Honda Civic's or BMW 330's driven around by the F1 guys on Friday, with the cars being sold off for charity at the end of the event.

Or at least make the test drivers race them.

prize money should be donated too.

No teams would allow drivers to risk injury driving those cars on a gp weekend.

Wasn't there a BMW ProCar "series" back in the 80s which featured F1 drivers?

While I don't recall anything about prize money or charities, but I seem to remember it wasn't really much of a success.

put them all in mini's and let them race for half an hour, that would be fun

I think that before you start to change the weekend around you need to decide what you want to see more of. A typical silverstone race weekend is already pretty full of on-track action as it is. Between Porsche Supercup, GP2, Historic sportscars and F1 the weekend has plenty going for it. Part of the problem is that there are so many people in attendance whose only interest is F1 rather than motorsport that they consider the weekend to be light on action. Two years ago, they had screens up showing football at the same time as Lewis Hamilton was overtaking three abreast through Maggots in GP2. That's just nuts.

Are people looking for more F1 cars which are racing, F1 cars doing anything, or any racing cars doing any racing? I think the best idea so far (IMO) is to have a series of manufacturer backed single-make races, driven by the F1 drivers. But they have sponsor responsibilities each weekend too so can they fit it all in?

I'd hope so.

A factory car with a full roll cage, harness and the driver fully kitted out in the gear and I see very little risk here. Except one. We already heard that Ron Dennis was unhappy with the idea of Lewis driving the Top Gear Suzuki Liana because it wasn't a Mercedes. I bet all the drivers are more or less tied to this sort of contract too. Would it be embarrassing for Kimi to beat the two Mercedes drivers in a C-Class? Or for Alonso to beat the two Toyota drivers in a Yaris? I think the money men would say yes, but it would be nice if they could overcome this objection.

There's no way manufacturers would let 'their' drivers regularly drive other manufacturer's cars.

One solution might be to change the manufacturer each race - there are what six manufacturers? Even this has a the downside that, say, Renault might be too worried that racing a Renaults is less fun/spectacular/watched than racing Ferraris. And entrants without a car - eg Force India - don't get the benefit and so could object.

Another option may be to race non - manufacturer cars, like the McRae rally special, or a car made by Lola / Dallara etc. But overall I don't believe anything interesting is going to come out of this initiative.

Forget special races, just give us some passing!!!!

But if they really want to host a shootout, stick them all in identical fiat road cars! You could even use renaults in France, mercs in Germany etc

I would like to see the F1 drivers competing in more races, like in the old days.

You would have to give them a massive incentive though. Giving them WDC points is probably too much. It should be independent of the F1 WDC yet still be attractive.....

I would love to see them drive superkarts but that is wishful thinking...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arCI2tiIaLU

If Bernie wants, they (teams) would do it! They $peak the same language. I read everyone is excited about Singapore. Why? Because it was a great show. That's good for F1. That's good for the business. Let's learn from the americans. More show on the weekend, but a PROPER F1 race (no refuelling, etc etc.).

As I said, fun for drivers (I hope!), excitement for fans and happy happy sponsors, the car manufacturer and the logos on the car. Those cars have a large amount of space for advertising.

Let's write a letter to the FOTA!! Dreaming is free.

Funnily enough there was a similar discussion in 2004. I got as far as...



Obviously the engine rules have changed since then, but then they're pretty much up in the air now anyway with arguments over power increases.

That definitely would be dangerous! Wheels covered!

Football was on the Saturday albeit at the same time as the GP2 race, but the 3 abreast overtake was in the Sunday race.

What's wrong with friday's now? Watching practie is quite good. When it was limited running it was crap, but now its fine. Any cheap "fastest lap" prize would be a joke

I don't think that really changes my point, which is that there is plenty of on-track action if you are a motorsport fan. But as soon as the F1 cars pit, you watch how the grandstands empty of people, some of whom I'm sure will then complain about the lack of racing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viwllFnipds I miss this

I agree with what your saying, but you have to remember that a for a large number of people their reason for attending a GP is too watch F1, and as much of it as possible. Considering how much the ticket costs that isnt unreasonable, and if they want to watch other minor series then there are plenty of events that don't cost the earth..

That goes back to the first sentence of my post; "I think that before you start to change the weekend around you need to decide what you want to see more of."

For some it will be more F1, others more racing, and for others still it may just be more of the F1 drivers.

The manufacturer backed races with F1 drivers will suit some but it's not F1 and it means people are really there to see the personalities and to see rivalries settled in a different way. Nevertheless I quite like the idea.

More testing is certainly more F1 but it's not a competition, even for fastest lap. If the teams start to look at it that way, they will start to lose track of the race prep and it can rob us of proper racing or qualifying action from support races.

I don't know really what I think would be best but I do think that some of the ideas in this thread are a whole lot better than the wanky ideas this working group has spunked out. I hope someone reads it!

One final point is that it's quite hard to find a F1 travel agent which include Friday as an option. More often than not, they treat it as a travel day.

Let's have a standard F2 car and have all the drivers set a time in it to see who the fastest is over 3 laps! Might give more recognition to the drivers in the smaller teams and less to the ones in the bigger ones!

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news...012172245.shtml



One of the things noted is to move the European race start time so that the race would finish at 12:30 GMT instead of 15:00 GMT. No thanks.

Thoughts?

Ugh wtf?!! That would mean races would start at 4am ET
**** Bernie

Mounting hobby horse again: grid positions by ballot.

It would suit me, but I don't think potential spectators would be thrilled.

Well I guess 5 random penalties should be handed out each GP. Throw out a SC (for good measure) right before teams are expected to make 1st pit stop.

Result = lots of overtaking w/ occasional surprise winners. See, no need to change regulations for '09. I probably just saved the 'sport' a billion dollars or so.
Can I have Max's job? I demand a thorough office cleansing & new furniture or I don't accept

You need a good spanking.

No matter what they claim, they certainly do not care about the North American or South American markets. 1400 GMT is a good compromise between all the continents but something like 1200 GMT is ridiculous.

+1 ... it's already hard to wake up at 8 to see a race, 4-5am? forget about it.

Although... if they moved it earlier even 2 more hours, I'd still have my glass full of whiskey at race-time.

Pit stops could involve downing a yard of ale.

eliminate refueling. Make the races a tad shorter to compensate.

use fridays for qualifying, then run each wknd as a dbl header with a Gp on saturday and again on sunday, like WSB.

I've been getting upat 5 am for years now. If I want to see the prerace show then its 4:30 am. Its alwasy at treat when they gove to the other side of the world and I can stay up late instead.

The idea of finishing at 12.30 p.m. is definitely a no-no for race goers - one of the few compensations of paying good money is to build the tension up for the race itself. When the British GP was put forward to accommodate the World Cup football in 2006 - the day felt rushed and unnatural and not enough time to do all the pre-race stuff especially for race day only visitors.