Changes afoot for the GP weekend

[Andy B]

So they are looking at changing the GP weekend format and do something on Fridays that will entertain the crowd, Ron Dennis said on Autosport that having a shootout on very hard tyres with the driver with the fastest time getting $1,000,000.
Like a GP driver needs a million dollars!!
Its an interesting thought though and there must be lots of options like eerrrrmmmm?
Ah! Let the public meet the drivers, have the pit lane open so we can walk through and see them working on the cars. Unlike at tests when the let you walk the pit lane and ensure you see nothing.
As for the cars running how about each driver nominates a charity in the country of the race and if that driver wins the million dollars it goes to that charity.

But I'm sure someone will have other idea's.

[Scott]

You kidding?  If the top three drivers share $19-20m a season, that's a pretty nice bonus, even on top of their salaries.  I agree with you about the pit lane walk-through and driver access.  I'd even be happy with a cameraman and (hopefully funny) reporter wandering the paddock - inside and outside the motorhomes.  Free access.  Show us the gee-whiz stuff they hide back there, and get a few off-the-cuff interviews. 

I would rather see some kind of heat races on the Friday, not one car on camera at a time doing time trials (I get enough of that on the Sunday at some of the more processional tracks).  But honestly, any improvement would be something.

More importantly, I think that Saturday could be improved by having two 20 minute, no refuelling, heat races with the first grid decided by lottery and the second a reverse of the finishing order of the first one.  Aggregate the times and you have Sunday's grid.  It would be a blast.

[John S]

Yeah Scotty I like the idea of heat races but without a T car these days I think the teams will be reluctant to get involved. Also a full grid might be to much, so how about a 20 min quali with the resulting pack split into 2 tens with 20 mins heats for both to decide each section of the grid.

Andy, the Friday shoot out option sounds a lot like something else that happens at race weekends........ oh I know Qualifiying, but for money!

[Steven Roy]

It worries me that anyone inside F1 thinks that Friday running is a major problem.  There are far bigger problems they should be dealing with than what to do on a Friday.

If they are going to change Friday's they should keep the F1 running as it is and add a Procar race for all the drivers or some other race where they all have identical equipment.  Lets bruise a few egos.

[Andy B]

If they are going to change Friday's they should keep the F1 running as it is and add a Procar race for all the drivers or some other race where they all have identical equipment.  Lets bruise a few egos.

I like the sound of that!

[cosworth151]

Having all the drivers competing in equal cars sounds great! I'm sure TV would buy into it, too.

The idea of an open pit lane, and open fan meetings with all the drivers is a very good one. Indy does that at the USGP on Thursday of race week-end.

[Steven Roy]

They seem to be missing the fundamental point on why Friday audiences are low.  The vast majority of the target audience works Fridays so it doesn't matter what you put on people are not close to their TVs.

[Alianora La Canta]

Maybe they should move Friday activities to Thursday evening and have the press conference stuff on Friday instead. Though I doubt even that would raise audiences significantly. There are more important issues in F1 right now than this.