F1 Friday practice format ‘open to discussion’, says Brawn

Formula 1 could see a change in its weekend schedule through a revision of its Friday practice format, but race lengths are set to remain unchanged.

Following its takeover of F1 in January 2017, Liberty Media included race weekend formats as part of its widespread review of the series, leading to suggestions it could shorten grands prix, introduce sprint events on a Saturday or hold a qualifying race to determine the grid.

Speaking to Sky Sports, F1 sporting managing director Ross Brawn said he saw no reason to change the length of races, but confirmed Friday’s practice running could be tweaked in the future.

“I think the length of a grand prix is about right. It’s not too long, it’s not too short, it engages you,” Brawn said.

“We want a grand prix to evolve and have its highlights and come together at the end. So I’m not sure that we should be thinking in terms of changing a grand prix length.

“I think we have other things we can do to enhance grand prix racing rather than changing around the format. Qualifying works fairly well.

“I think practice on a Friday is open to discussion, whether we need two sessions, whether we move to just an afternoon session, because another factor in all of this is the number of races we have. If we have an increased number of races, do we change the format to put less pressure on the teams to be able to do those races?”

Brawn also highlighted the importance of bringing the fans closer to F1, and raised the possibility of holding a Le Mans-style open scrutineering ahead of race weekends.

“The fans always come first - what do the fans want to see in a grand prix weekend? Getting close to the cars and getting close to the drivers is something we always get feedback on,” Brawn said.

“It’s an essential part for the fans. So over a race weekend, could we do more to let the fans get closer to the cars? One proposal is to have open scrutineering, so the cars literally have to go out into the field to be scrutineered so the fans can come and see them.

“It happens at Le Mans and is a great event. All the fans come, the cars are lifted up and you can see underneath them. So we’re exploring things of that nature.

“But I’m fairly conservative about the format of the racing, and I haven't got any major plans on that at the moment.”