Cars ‘frozen’ since Friday morning with a detailed explanation of all the technical innovations ahead of the first free practice session and why it was decided to use them, without the possibility of changing anything in the cars: this is the idea of Liberty Media and the FIA for the 2022 Formula 1 season, as they wanted to extend the Parc Fermé regime practically from the arrival of the teams at the circuit. In 2022, the race weekend will officially begin on Friday with the usual scrutineering and the two free practice sessions on the weekends without the Sprint Qualifying on Saturday will see the cars on track from 12 to 13 for the first free practice session and from 16 at 17 for the second one.
Thanks to the resistance of the top teams, these sessions will still make sense given that according to what was reported by the German newspaper Auto Motor und Sport, the Parc Fermé rules will be kept identical to the current regime, which states that the teams can continue to change the set-up and specifications of the car up to the Qualifying sessions. An idea which was already considered absurd by most of the fans, who do not understand how a team can approach a weekend, for example, with changing weather, without being able to make setup changes for rain 24 hours before Qualifying.
The possibility of even having to freeze the cars on Friday morning has been removed and as regards the so-called technical ‘Show and tell’ on Friday morning, with the cars on display in the pit lane and at the media’s disposal, the teams will not go beyond a press release in the which they will take great care not to reveal too many secrets. The tug-of-war between Liberty Media and the teams therefore continues. At the very least, the top teams have obtained the possibility of continuing to bring new pieces to the racetrack even on Friday evening without having to homologate and freeze the whole Friday morning before even putting the car on the track.
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