Slimming down F1: Could two-day grands prix be the way forward?

Because the medical helicopter couldn’t fly due to the Nürburgring fog, the two practice sessions for the Eifel Grand Prix couldn’t happen. The only running before qualifying was therefore in the one-hour Saturday morning session.

A total of one hour’s practice rather than four had no discernible effect on the competitive order and afterwards drivers and team bosses were full of enthusiasm for the idea of future two-day grand prix meetings. Although unplanned on this occasion, F1 did already have such an event scheduled. The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, scheduled two races after the Nürburgring, would be a two-day event. This was to ease the travel schedule from the Algarve GP in the preceding week. But nonetheless it was done also to assess the feasibility of the format.

“I think it’s a good thing,” said Lewis Hamilton. “I don’t think we need to be here on Fridays. It’s more exciting with just one practice anyway. It saves 22 days a year, so that’s good. That’s 22 days the cars aren’t polluting. Of course it makes it more difficult, but I think it is a lot more exciting.”

“From an engineering point of view it’s too short,” said Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto. “Especially if you want to test new items. If we go to two days, we should have a longer session on Saturday.”

Toto Wolff said: “The less practice there is, the less information the teams collect and the more unpredictable the weekend can be. It becomes clear which of the teams can work more flexibly and adapt better, and which drivers are able to quickly get used to a circuit and understand the tyres. I am ready to support it. Of course we would need to talk to the promoters as they sell tickets for Friday, but just from a personal perspective, I like it.”