Friday Changes

[mistakenplane]

Teams have agreed to on changes to Friday sessions for 2015, which now has to be ratified.

They want one single Friday session of 90 mins, starting as late as 5pm. This would save them one days travel & hotel costs, and make it more attractive for fans who dont need to take time off work.


I suspect the circuits will have something to say about this however...

[Allyc85]

Of course ticket prices will reflect this change and reduction in running...

[thegreenhell]

So with this reduced Friday running, and the proposed reintroduction of the in-season testing ban, when are the rookie drivers supposed to get any wheel time in a real car? The race drivers are unlikely to give up their only Friday session to allow the test driver a run.

I know it's all in the interests of cost saving, but it seems they are merely pinching a few pennies which most teams wouldn't even notice, and in an area that disadvantages the smaller teams and the fans.

[Chrisgr31]

It wont save any days travel costs, well not unless its cheaper to travel one day later, because they'll still be going the same distance. It will in theory save 1 days hotel costs but in reality the hotels will just increase their prices for the other 2 nights!

[rdjohn]

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/27739561

It just goes to show how out of touch everyone is, that their first priority is to reduce their costs by reducing value-for-money for the circuit owners and fans.

They really are a clueless bunch.

[andyps]

Watching the coverage on the BBC for 2nd practice today showed a way to save at least that amount in a much better way. If it is true that it costs €1000 per lap, a team may do around 80 laps in the session they are proposing dropping so €80k saving. Yet there was a discussion about the front wings off the Force India and the comment that they are £80k each. Looking at the complexity of the front wing I am sure a much simpler version with only a single element allowed would not only be cheaper to produce but would save endless, expensive, hours in design with constant tweaks. Not only that, it would probably spice up the racing through less downforce so spectators would get a better show for the teams cost saving.

Trouble is, that is far too logical to be thought of in F1 or have I missed something?

[woof]

the saving is purely aimed at saving engine usage.
Renault have already said their engines, power units will run over their allocation - so that's what's driving this.

I personally enjoy FP1 & FP2 more than most races. I learn more during these sessions than you can in quali and the race. A terrible decision but from the sound of the Team principles conference today, it's a forgone conclusion.

[CraigyMc]

woof said:

the saving is purely aimed at saving engine usage.
Renault have already said their engines, power units will run over their allocation - so that's what's driving this.

I personally enjoy FP1 & FP2 more than most races. I learn more during these sessions than you can in quali and the race. A terrible decision but from the sound of the Team principles conference today, it's a forgone conclusion.

It also lets the big teams pay lip service to the need of the small teams to cut costs.

I say lip service because the small teams would all be in favour of a budget cap in the region of $40m-$60m a year, and all the big teams are spending well over $100m (some more than double that).

It'll be interesting to see which of the smaller teams goes out of business in the next few years. Caterham? Sauber? Marussia? Of the three, Sauber seems to have the highest fixed costs (Marussia don't have much money but on the other hand never had much so don't have "rich tastes").

If Sauber end the season on zero points (given that Marussia have 2), it could mean the end for them.

[Some Gump]

Daft idea, but clever at the same time.

This change would cement the balance of power, as the small teams have inferior simulators. They need the track time desperately.

They also make a lot of their budget selling seat time on thursdays / fridays - and i'm sure corporate hospitality is strong for sponsors during testing as well as the race.

I think the big teams really want the small teams to die off so they can get the 3 car teams / customer cars that they have been wanting for some time. Makes sense i spose, if you're running a business you want to maximise opportunity...

[CharlesAL]

Just what the hell. Bad for the fans. The teams won't even notice the money they save. They will notice when drivers like Van der Garde stop paying them for a go in the car on Friday mornings.

Beneficial for fans? Oh come on. Being at the track all day with open grandstands and going to all the different corners is part of the fun.

[slipstream 1985]

personally i'd love to see 3 car teams. However if you run 3 cars instead of 2 you can only nominte 2 cars to score you constructors points after qualifying. Would make for some interesting decesions if your #1 driver is strting further back or for pit stops. 2 car smaller teams have less costs compared to the 3 car teams.

[IforB]

And yet again F1 proves that it will eventually implode as it has completely lost the plot when it comes to giving the people who pay for all of it (spectators and TV viewers) what they want.

The self-absorbtion in F1 is astonishing. Blinkered, myopic and only interested in themselves whilst saying "f you" to the rest of the world.

All I can hope for is that one day, someone will take over from Bernie and drag the sport back into line, but I'm not holding my breath...

[anonymous-user]

slipstream 1985 said:

personally i'd love to see 3 car teams. However if you run 3 cars instead of 2 you can only nominte 2 cars to score you constructors points after qualifying. Would make for some interesting decesions if your #1 driver is strting further back or for pit stops. 2 car smaller teams have less costs compared to the 3 car teams.

Give Bernie a call. That's daft enough to be one of his ideas..........

[slipstream 1985]

REALIST123 said:

slipstream 1985 said:

personally i'd love to see 3 car teams. However if you run 3 cars instead of 2 you can only nominte 2 cars to score you constructors points after qualifying. Would make for some interesting decesions if your #1 driver is strting further back or for pit stops. 2 car smaller teams have less costs compared to the 3 car teams.

Give Bernie a call. That's daft enough to be one of his ideas..........

He phoned me about it

[andyps]

Gaz. said:

I have less sympathy with the track owners though, they had BE/FOM over a barrel with an orange in his mouth a few years ago yet between them they still could not get themselves a fairer slice of the pie.

Not sure when you mean but contracts are renewed pretty regularly and this is a change in the deal following the signing of current contracts - not sure when the Canadian deal was done, for example but if it was completed on Wednesday for the next 10 years and the organisers found out about this on Friday they would have good reason to pissed about it whatever the situation was a few years ago.