Flav proposes radical format changes

Renault's team principal Flavio Briatore has suggested a radical shake-up of Formula 1's race weekend format to spice up the show and improve racing.

In an interview with F1's official website the Italian explained how the sport needed to do more to ensure it provides racing entertainment like thatwhichoccured inthe wetEuropean Grand Prix, even when it does not rain.

"At the moment, the model of an F1 weekend is simple," he said.

"We spend two days sorting out the cars, putting the quickest ones at the front and the slowest ones at the back through qualifying.

"Then we send them out to race, and magically hope for the slower ones to become faster, and vice versa, to produce overtaking!

"Even if we make it easier to overtake, we still need something else to shuffle the order of the cars to create a really exciting racing. When the rain comes, it introduces that little bit of chaos you need to jumble things up."

Briatore used the example of F1's official feeder formula, the GP2 Series, as how the format could be changed.

GP2, which has producedstars such as Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, runs two races over each European grand prix weekend, the second of which runs a reverse top eightbased onthe finishing positions of the first.

The format has proved highly successful and provided plenty of overtaking.

"They reverse the grids in GP2 for the second race, and it means that the quick drivers have to fight past the slower ones," explained Briatore.

"Or what about having two races per weekend, instead of one? Some aspects of F1 are essential parts of its DNA, but perhaps not as many as people think..."

Briatore added that F1 needed to rethink its elitist approach to fans and bring down some of the barriers that keep its stars locked away and out of view at races.

"In the modern world, people want to get closer to the stars, to be able to have contact with them and to see behind the scenes," he said.

"We need to reach out to the fans and start getting them closer to the sport."

SOURCE: ITV-F1

(P.S. I'm sure I've heard this like 5 million times from him before...)

I like what he has to say until he gets to the whole two race thing.

Reversing the grids would be cool and kind of fun. More overtaking... Let the pole sitter and P11 and P17 keep their grid spot and flip the order by session. And that would make people fight for the pole, but lose if they don't get it...

Suzuka 2005 is a great example of something like this working, to be honest. I mean, it's not often you get the guy starting 17th winning the race now is it?Redders1989

yeh but remember, the rain washed away all the rubber on the track, so there was "set" racing line, so alonso and raikkonen could take different lines. Maybe they should wash the track before the race....or just bring back slicks :roll:

The cars need to change, not the weekend format. Qualifying is great, and the race format has always worked well.cjek

[QUOTE="cjek"]The cars need to change, not the weekend format. Qualifying is great, and the race format has always worked well.aloushi87

Martin Brundle had a great idea: As usual, the guys declare how much fuel they have to start the race, however then they take the fuel out, so they're practically running on fumes (ala Q2) to see who really is the fastest without fuel weight being a question.

[QUOTE="aloushi87"][QUOTE="cjek"]The cars need to change, not the weekend format. Qualifying is great, and the race format has always worked well.Redders1989

Martin Brundle had a great idea: As usual, the guys declare how much fuel they have to start the race, however then they take the fuel out, so they're practically running on fumes (ala Q2) to see who really is the fastest without fuel weight being a question.

Sounds like an excellent idea, I can't think of a fairer way to do it. It will give drivers plenty of attempts at a fast lap, not just 2. At the moment the Q3 excitement is always in the last minute or so when drivers pretty much set their final positions, but with fuel burning out of the way, the whole 15 minutes could be good.

But the fuel burning was brought in so the drivers are forced to go out early and stay out till their fastest lap, wif no Fuel to burn they would revert backto not going out untill they have to so there would be chaos and a lot of traffic and those that did stay out would make a number of stops causing only more chaos, I think it should stay as it is.

I dont think many drivers would go for flippin the grip either cause to many wanna fight for pole, u might even see drivers go slow on purpose just to gain the flip lol, if anything i would suggest a change in the way thaey ballaest the cars, i.e. allow the smaller cars to use less thus quickening the pace a little, but woul then no longer see the need to get a better ride in a better team!

course there is the age old problem that some drivers are just plain crap and nuffin will help them lol.

We don't want to be seeing Pitstop passing, we want it on the track.kipi19

Yep, which can hopefully be achieved by changing the cars themselves.

The first step to an improved F1 comes in 2008.. some major changes include many car components being standardised by the FIA, meaning no team has an advantage when it comes to things like electrical systems, a ban on traction control, making driving more of a challenge for drivers and increasing the entertainment factor, a decrease in downforce of about 10% and a loss of winglets like this: and bargeboards which will both make cars be able to follow others more closely in corners and overtake more easily, and slick tyres will be brought back as an option, meaning much more grip and therefore easier overtaking.