{"id":491784,"date":"2026-02-20T06:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491784\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T06:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T06:09:09","slug":"f1-considering-weekend-format-shake-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491784\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 considering weekend format shake-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Formula 1 is evaluating a shake-up of the format of non-sprint race weekends in a bid to spice up the action on Fridays.<\/p>\n

Amid ongoing discussions about increasing the number of sprint races in the future, with an upper limit of 12 on the table, F1 has revealed plans to try and add more excitement to every race weekend.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Bahrain pre-season test, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said F1 is considering moving away from just having two straight one-hour practice sessions on a regular Friday.<\/p>\n

Options could include a competitive element, extended practice or even exclusive young driver running.<\/p>\n

Domenicali explained that the push was a result of feedback from fans at events and promoters that they want to see \u201creal action\u201d on each day of a grand prix weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thinking to keep relevant every day that we are on track and, of course, to protect the time needed for the rookies to have the time to run,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is either having a longer time for free practice when we do it, or having a session for them to be allowed to get in this ecosystem, because it is clear that on a sprint weekend, if you are a rookie, you don’t have a lot of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s a point that we are addressing, and we will present shortly something real in this respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

While discussions about expanding the number of sprint weekends up to 12 did not reach a conclusion in a meeting of the F1 Commission earlier this week, Domenicali said that a decision on how many there will be in 2027 is expected “in the next months”.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone wants to have it [a sprint], but we want to wait to see the effect on the track,” he said. <\/p>\n

“It’s also a commercial opportunity that we want to discuss.\u201d<\/p>\n

F1 season launch\"\"<\/p>\n

Looking towards 2027 plans, Domenicali has also revealed that F1 is considering staging another global launch event – similar to the F1 75 spectacular at the O2 that took place in early 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext year, we will go back to one single test before the season,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we are also thinking about, as we did [last year] a potential global launch, with all the teams together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a big effect, a sort of a 25th race in terms of impact of communication around the world. But it’s still work in progress on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turkey to return?\"\"<\/p>\n

Domenicali is also working on finalising the 24-race schedule for 2027, especially with a slot opening up now that the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is switching to alternate with Spa-Francorchamps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speculation in recent days has suggested that Turkey could be set for a return to the calendar alongside Portimao \u2013 with Domenicali not ruling it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurkey is not, let’s say, 100% confirmed,\u201d he explained. \u201cStay tuned on Turkey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is also an answer to the people that were saying there were too many street races.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new ones that are coming are tracks, not street races. These are tracks with heritage, and with a great racing background.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 is evaluating a shake-up of the format of non-sprint race weekends in a bid to spice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-491784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}