Friday practice is ‘open to discussion’

Formula 1 could say goodbye to Friday practices in the future, or drop to just one session; according to Ross Brawn.

Liberty Media are looking at various ways to shake up grands prix weekends, bringing both fans back to the circuits and increasing TV viewership numbers.

Brawn, F1’s sporting boss, has looked at the format of the race weekends and while he feels that qualifying and the grands prix are perfect as they are, he says they could change the Friday practices.

“I think the length of a grand prix is about right. It’s not too long, it’s not too short, it engages you,” Brawn told Sky Sports.

“We want a grand prix to evolve and have its highlights and come together at the end. So I’m not sure that we should be thinking in terms of changing a grand prix length.

“I think we have other things we can do to enhance grand prix racing rather than changing around the format. Qualifying works fairly well.

“I think practice on a Friday is open to discussion, whether we need two sessions, whether we move to just an afternoon session, because another factor in all of this is the number of races we have.

“If we have an increased number of races, do we change the format to put less pressure on the teams to be able to do those races?”