As Formula 1 is continuing to reduce to amount of testing which teams can perform, and also having reduced Friday running this year, concerns have appeared regarding the next generation of drivers and their lack opportunity to get mileage in current cars under their belt.
Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali confirmed he is analyzing the situation and feels the current situation does not help the progress of the young generation of drivers, without offering them the possibility to show their abilities and most importantly gain on track experience.
In a recent interview for Motorsport Italy, the former Ferrari boss said that one option the sport was looking at was changing the rules in order to force teams to run youngsters.
At the moment, teams have the option to run a third drivers on Fridays but not all outfits do it: “This weekend, on Friday, there is only one hour of free practice and then we go straight to the qualifying. This forces you to prepare for the GP in a different way, with less data. In my time, I remember that we ran tests for 90,000km, where we were on the track every day. Today, these kilometres are done in the simulator, with less and less on the track to test the cars. But I believe that one of the topics to be discussed and explored will be the management of young drivers’ growth.” – the F1 boss explained.
“The topic of young drivers is very important and interests us, and that is why, at a time when tests are so regulated, there are some ideas that we will discuss in the next meetings with the teams. In particular, we want to make the presence of young drivers mandatory in free practice.” – he added.
Stefano Domenicali explained said that the idea of teams having to run young drivers would offer more than one benefit, as it would be beneficial to the rookies in gaining experiences, but at the same time this would lead to more unpredictable races taking into consideration that the main drivers would not get the chance to drive on Friday and get a general feeling of the ideal setup or track conditions.
“This will give the teams less time to try things in view of the race, making the event even more exciting. But it would also give the juniors the opportunity to try in a dynamic and competitive context. We are talking about it because it is important for the whole F1 supply chain.” – he concluded.
The potential rule change is likely to be discussed at the next meeting of the Formula 1 Commission, which takes place on October
Leave a Reply