F1 boss, Stefano Domenicali has reiterated his want to see much less follow classes over Grand Prix race weekends.
Attending the opening spherical of the 2023 MotoGP season, the Italian instructed SportTV: “I’m a supporter of the cancellation of free follow classes, that are of nice use to the engineers however that the general public does not like.”
In fact, this is not the primary time he has mentioned this, having commented final yr that he would both wish to see free follow classes scrapped completely or given that means by awarding factors.
Naturally, most followers greeted his feedback with horror.
Sadly, Domenicali, like Ross Brawn, has not solely taken the Liberty Media shilling, he has willingly swallowed it.
Had such a suggestion been made when both have been working with F1 groups they’d have fought such a transfer tooth and nail, certainly at the same time as younger children attending their first races they’d have been aghast at such a proposal.
However now each dumb concept that F1’s ‘creatives’ give you is greeted by the likes of Domenicali, Brawn and Pat Symonds – seasoned F1 males – with the kind of “nice”, “tremendous” enthusiasm beforehand reserved for CJ within the iconic Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.
First off, with little testing of any value, this yr’s programme was diminished to 3 days, groups want all of the on-track working they will get.
Sure, free follow does enable groups to check updates, whereas additionally getting ready for the weekend forward, however with Purple Bull and Max Verstappen threatening to run away with the titles certainly it’s in everybody’s curiosity for rivals to at the very least try to catch-up, the restrictions of the funds cap apart.
Then there’s the query of up and coming drivers who want the Friday session to realize and expertise and hopefully entice the eye of potential employers.
And naturally, let’s not neglect the followers who need to see as a lot working as attainable, and are paying via the nostril for the privilege.
As an apart, and little doubt a portent of what is heading down the road, the much-hyped Las Vegas Grand Prix is not going to characteristic any assist races of any form.
Moreover, followers who sought to pay money for $500 GA (common tickets) once they went on sale lately have been to be dissatisfied, many claiming that none have been truly accessible, and have been as an alternative directed to the following tier, at $2,000 a pop.
Talking final yr, Domenicali raised the prospect of giving the free follow session extra that means by awarding factors, whereas there’s even discuss of revising your complete weekend format in order that Friday is given over to follow and qualifying for Sunday’s race, whereas Saturday encompasses a stand-alone championship comprising qualifying within the morning and a Dash within the afternoon.
You have seen how Liberty envisages the longer term, Scorching Wheels or Scalextric tracks in the midst of darkened cities, cities that in all honesty might be anyplace on planet.
F1 made a shrewd transfer by getting a world championship getting into 2020 – then once more it needed to or else the game might have gone bust.
In the meantime, lockdown ensured that there was a captive viewers for Drive to Survive which up till then had loved restricted success on Netflix.
Have at the very least one driver gurning at each alternative, one other pouting, a workforce principal with Tourettes one other couple who clearly hate each other, and, as Christian Horner so aptly described it, you have got the “Kardashians on Wheels”.
Aided and abetted by the likes of Brawn and Domenicali, Liberty is taking F1 down a highway from which there can be no return.
Proceed to tinker with the game at your peril.
