F1 plans to get rid 0f third car

[davewilson]

Formula One's governing body is planning to abolish the use of third cars during Friday practice sessions for next season.
The FIA also wants to reduce the length of qualifying sessions by five minutes, starting as soon as next weekend.

The proposals will be put to a fax vote of the FIA's World Motor Sport Council.

"If agreed, changes which affect the 2006 regulations (length of qualifying) will come into force at the French Grand Prix," the governing body said.

The biggest change is the proposal "to eliminate the possibility for certain teams to run a third car on Fridays" in 2007
Teams which finished outside the top four in the overall standings in the previous season are allowed to use a third car in Friday practice at present, but those drivers do not race on Sundays.

"Fans get a raw deal on Fridays as a lot of the race drivers don't even run and they're the guys they have paid to see," Honda team boss Nick Fry told Autosport magazine.

"When they do (run), the times they set are nearly always pretty meaningless. Secondly, the savings for us are potentially huge. We could almost halve our testing spend."

The change to qualifying would mean three equal 15-minute sessions from next weekend, rather than two 15-minute knockout sessions followed by one 20 minute shoot-out for pole among the top drivers.

The next grand prix is at Magny-Cours in France on 16 July
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/5159842.stm
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