Free practice Friday’s will slowly be phased out, F1 boss says

Fans and promoters are tired of watching cars go around the track with no point or end goal in mind and thus, “Free practice Fridays” are likely to be dropped from the weekend schedule, F1 boss Stefano Domenicali said. 

Domenicali said they want to attract more youngsters to the sport and make it more appealing for fans who want to catch a bit of the action over the weekend. 

The idea of adding more sprint events into the calendar is what Domenicali has suggested, saying it will be more appealing for crowds to watch. Unlike F1, Moto GP has Sprint events every weekend, which make the sport more interesting compared to F1 because there are more points to fight for. 

Sprints were first added to the F1 calendar back in 2021 but Domenicali said that fans, stakeholders and drivers are in support of adding more to the schedule. 

From a race promoter perspective, more sprint races will allow for better ticket sales over the weekend, keeping the highly expensive sport financially feasible for those administrating it. 

The Italian said that driving simulators were technologically advanced enough for drivers to practice on and is clearly in support of ditching the free practice sessions entirely. 

“There’s a topic on the table concerning the format we’ll use in the coming years, starting with sprint races. We need to understand whether to increase them, how to increase them, and whether to use different formats. We have several discussions to have with the teams to decide the direction. 

“I have to say that aside from a few older die-hard fans, everyone wants sprint weekends. Promoters push for this format and now drivers are as well. I’m being a bit proactive but free practice appeals to super-specialists: people who want to see more action prefer a sprint weekend. 

“The direction is clear: I can guarantee that in a few years there will be demand to have all weekends with the same format. I’m not saying we’ll get to MotoGP, that’s too big a step. I see it more as a maturation process that respects a more traditionalist approach,” Domenicali said. 

“Promoters and fans want action…to put it bluntly, they are tired of free practice,” he added.