F1: Did Barmy Brazil teach us about changing to a one day format?
F1 has run a three-day format for most of its existence. However, the storms that hit Interlagos this weekend showed maybe it’s time for a change.
What happened?
After an interrupted Friday with practice and sprint qualifying completed without a problem, Saturday brought chaos.
While the sprint race went without incident as Lando Norris was gifted the win from his teammate Oscar Piastri. The main race qualifying session was delayed by two hours before being cancelled and moved to Sunday morning.
With more rain on the way, the FIA announced a 7:30 am (10:30am UK) qualifying and a 12:30 pm (3:30pm UK) race. This therefore created the first one-day format since Japan 2019.
With five red flags during qualifying and the craziest race of the season, which was won by Max Verstappen going from P17. It has now created calls for maybe a one-day qualifying and race format with practice the day before.
Formula E has shown it is possible:
Formula E has always run a two- or one-day format since its inception due to the fact it naturally races on city streets, which necessitates the format.
The actual way they run the events themselves is a one-hour session late on Friday with another practice followed by qualifying and the race all on Saturday.
While the races tend to be later in the day than F1 currently races, they are only 2/3 hours later and still have solid crowd sizes, with them filling the EXCEL centre in London for the indoor/outdoor race they have run for the last few seasons.
How could F1 run the format?
01.11.2020. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 13, Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Imola, Italy, Race Day.
Photo credit should read: XPB/Press Association Images.
F1 could ditch Friday entirely and run both FP1 and FP2 on Saturday or even a single practice session (like it did at Imola in 2020).
This would then allow for a qualifying and race on Sunday. While this would impact support series, F2&3 could practice and qualify on Friday as a support exclusive day as well as race on Saturday and Sunday.
What would be the benefits of such a move?
Such a move would bring down travel time and costs for the Formula One teams as they would be doing media day on the Friday and not the Thursday, which would enable for an extra day of travel. While F2 and F3 would still be doing media day on Thursday, it would still benefit F1 overall.
With Friday being a support only day, ticket costs could also be reduced as prices are at record highs and fans are starting to be switched off due to this.
What do you think of the idea of a one-day format? Tweet us @Sports_Byte.
