Liberty Media’s arrival to the sport of F1 has attracted its fair share of naysayers as Liberty’s ‘visionary’ ideas haven’t gone down well with the traditionalists, as they feel that the sport is being tinkered with way too much.
But hold your horses right there, because the barrage of complaints could go a notch higher, if Liberty go through with their idea of introducing qualifying races on Saturday, one’s that will see drivers competing in a 100km race to determine the grid places for Sunday’s race.
The rationale behind going through with the ‘qualifying race’ is that Liberty wants to bring in an influx of younger audience into the sport and believes that providing them with shorter races could hook them onto the sport.
Initially, Liberty were planning to bring in shorter races for Sunday, but that would have been dealt with heavy backlash from F1 loyalists and hence the plan was dropped.
While Friday and Sunday wouldn’t be tinkered with, Saturday’s offerings will have a major overhaul.
Practice session would be scrapped and normal qualifying would take place in order to get the grid places for the ‘short spring race’.
The results of the short sprint race will then help formulate the grid places for Sunday’s raceday.
How will Saturday’s race be different than Sunday’s race(apart from the distance factor)?
According to Liberty’s plans, Saturday’s race will not have any restrictions with respect to tyres or fuel consumption, thus allowing the cars and drivers to go all out, providing fans with an unreal race experience.
According to reports, Liberty presented all teams with his idea in Melbourne and has given all teams a specified time period to come back with answers/reservations.
Do you think a qualifying race would spice things up?
