Formula 1 has walked back CEO Stefano Domenicali’s claim of cancelling practice sessions at a Grand Prix weekend.
The Italian was present for MotoGP’s season opener in Portugal last weekend, as the premier motorcycle category used a new Sprint format for the first time.
The schedule sees the number of practice sessions reduced to two on Friday with a 30-minute warm-up before qualifying on Saturday morning and the Sprint in the afternoon.
Overall, this means MotoGP teams have half an hour less running before qualifying than before, an approach Domenicali seemingly endorsed.
“I am a supporter of the cancellation of free practice sessions, which are of great use to the engineers but that the public doesn’t like,” he said via Sport TV.
F1 has also tinkered with practice in recent years, reducing the length of FP1 and FP2 from 90 to 60 minutes each on a normal weekend.
Sprint weekends only see one one-hour session before qualifying on Friday with second practice on Saturday ahead of the Sprint.
F1 also tested a two-day format at the 2020 race at Imola, with a single 90-minute practice on Saturday before qualifying and the race on Sunday.
However, in response to Domenicali’s “cancellation” comment, RaceFans quoted an F1 spokesman as saying the aim was to make practice “more engaging” with several ideas being considered.
“Free practice is very interesting for the engineers or for the drivers, but at the end of the day, in sport, you need to fight for something,” Domenicali himself said last year.
“Every time we will be on the track – with the respect of the race on Sunday, that has to be always the most important part of it – there should be something to fight for in terms of points, in terms of awards. That’s my opinion.”
