Formula 1
Villeneuve supports two-day weekends
Jacques Villeneuve has supported the controversial proposal by the FIA to constrict race weekends to two days rather than three. On March 19th a summit meeting will be held by team principals, FIA President Max Mosley and F1 commercial chief Bernie ...
Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM
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Jacques Villeneuve has supported the controversial proposal by the FIA to constrict race weekends to two days rather than three. On March 19th a summit meeting will be held by team principals, FIA President Max Mosley and F1 commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone to discuss cost cutting in Formula One. In the wake of Prost Grand Prix going bankrupt, desperate measures are being sought to prevent the same happening to any other team.
Mosley has already proffered the idea of teams being limited to one engine per race weekend and teams being subject to penalties if that engine were to fail. The idea is not without merit -- it would significantly cut costs, the leading manufacturers use over 100 engines a year at a cost of US$600,000 per engine.
Jacques Villeneuve.
Photo by British American Racing.
The latest idea is to scrap Friday practice and run Saturday as a combined practice and qualifying -- and Villeneuve agrees that pre-race testing should be banned.
"More races and less testing would mean the same mileage on the cars and the same costs, but more publicity and more fun for everyone," he said. "I think the idea of a two-day weekend is great. If that was the case I would like to see 25 races a year."
"We have too much testing and not enough racing," the Canadian veteran continued. "We could have three races a month and then two weeks off - three races in a row then 10 days off with no testing. It would be better for sponsors because they don't get any publicity out of testing. The place they get it is from racing and the television coverage."
The current Formula One calender consists of 17 races but new countries to the F1 circus are bidding to be involved, such as the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Russia. The idea of cutting testing time and increasing the number of races to perhaps 25 a year has met with a mixed reaction.
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