Fan Friendly Friday Format

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/53002

autosport.com reports teams discussing a move to make Fridays a full test day for all teams, no engine or tyre restrictions, and drastically reduce other testing.

Great idea.

Would make it a decent platform for new drivers to showcase their talent again as it will be a pretty level playing field for all.

I'd buy that for a dollar.:)

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/53002

autosport.com reports teams discussing a move to make Fridays a full test day for all teams, no engine or tyre restrictions, and drastically reduce other testing.

Great idea.

Would make it a decent platform for new drivers to showcase their talent again as it will be a pretty level playing field for all.

That will be something really good, specially for the fans.

Would be a great idea and help promote new drivers into F1, even if only as testers.

Call me a cynic though but somehow I can't see Max and Bernie going for it. Restricting testing would run against what their pals Ferrari want surely.

Some of us have been wanting this for years.

Hope it goes ahead. Fingers crossed.

From the other perspective, do we really want 24 cars with a great setup? Because that's what will happen if they have a full day to dial the car in. I know the track can change a lot over a weekend, but a full Friday would surely make things easier for the drivers and teams.

Look how the championship has changed since Indy because Alonso just couldn't get his car working right.

I'm all for more F1 track time, I just don't think it's clear how it would affect the racing on Sunday.

In the remote hope that the f1 powers that be are reading this forum, this would indeed be a long awaited, no brainer, intelligent, reasonable, cost saving, good for everyone, etc. decision.

Call me a cynic though but somehow I can't see Max and Bernie going for it. Restricting testing would run against what their pals Ferrari want surely.

I have the perfect solution, Max and Bernie should tell Ferrari that if they carry on unlimited testing at their own tracks, they don't get the benefit of the full friday testing. Put's them on the back foot with regards to the other teams who get the full day. Seems fair to me.

I'm sorry, but I believe this is a very bad idea.

Testing should be banned on any circuit hosting a round of the world championship.

The full day of testing on Friday will mean the cars are more likely to find the "perfect" set up, qualify 2 by 2 and race in that order to the flag.

A step backwards, in my opinion.

I'd be in favour of full testing with unrestricted machinery on Friday, but only if they limit the amount of laps the race drivers can do (perhaps the race distance amount), so as to limit the problem Scott suggests. Testing away from the races during the season has to be cut, for the sake of costs.

I'm sorry, but I believe this is a very bad idea.

Testing should be banned on any circuit hosting a round of the world championship.

The full day of testing on Friday will mean the cars are more likely to find the "perfect" set up, qualify 2 by 2 and race in that order to the flag.

A step backwards, in my opinion.

The Friday third driver can presently do an unlimited number of laps if I am not mistaken and this has not made the teams with a third driver qualify 2 by 2. I also remember times when teams could change engines (and tyres IIRC) as often as they wanted such that the Friday sessions were extremely busy. No one ever raised that unlimited laps on the Friday practice sessions caused the teams to qualify 2 by 2 for the race. The number of tyres and engine changes were limited simply to save costs IIRC.

The track conditions (and wind/temperature etc.) are changing from one day to the other (if not by the hour) such that what is the perfect set up at the end of the Friday sessions is generally no longer optimum the following day.

May we just try it and see? Please? :awshucks:

The full day of testing on Friday will mean the cars are more likely to find the "perfect" set up, qualify 2 by 2 and race in that order to the flag.

okayee. but, they practically rock up with the right set up on the last 10 years of data they gained at a track. Even the brand new tracks the feed it into the computer and it tells them the set up. kimi does about 5 laps on a friday and sticks it on the front row the next day.

Don't forget a key part of this plan is to ban testing at other times.

meaning even teams like mclaren with mega advanced simulators will have to test more the more major things (pad compounds, gearboxes, areo packages, etc) during the friday of a GP. there will be even less time for fine tuning.

plus the fans get to see the cars covering more lappage in one day than the whole race weekend combined.

everyone's a winner.

Cynic in me says this will hapen, but not for any of the reasons suggested.

Drivers want full marshal and medical cover for testing, and they, or their teams are now faced with a big bill for it. Now they can go testing and get all that for free.

As a useful by-product, the fans get to see the cars more. It's not going to change the qualifying, they'll line up two-by-two and process to the end of the race whatever you do with testing, simply because everyone builds two cars which are only entirely similar to each other.

That still makes it a good thing in my book.

I ilike this idea, make for good viewing in the Friday. Also, teams line-up 2x2 even at circuits where they don't do alot of testing e.g. Indy this year

Well, I really hope that the FIA goes ahead with this plan, because it seems they have already decided to ban third cars next season.

It was decided on Friday, the story is here (http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns17098.html). I can see the point about forcing the race drivers to take to the track on Friday, but it means much less work for the test drivers.

All the more reason now for the existing third drivers to be chasing a race seat for next season.

Link.http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=36573