Daniel Ricciardo finds himself in quite the fix at theout moment, as contract negotiations haven’t panned out the way they should have and his standing in the driver’s championship isn’t quite attractive either.
With the top teams more or less certain with what their driver line up for 2019 would look like, Ricciardo will in all probability have to settle for a new Red Bull contract.
However, all this ‘cloud’ over his future hasn’t stopped him from giving fresh ideas of how the sport of F1 could be made better and more meaningful.
With talk going around about a Saturday sprint qualifying format, Ricciardo did not shy away from giving his views about abolishing free practice sessions altogether.
In the current format, grand prix weekends have two free practice 90 minute sessions on Friday, followed by a 60 minute free practice session before qualifying on Saturday. Sunday is the race day.
“I’d prefer no practices and just Saturday, Sunday,” Ricciardo said. “Just qualify Saturday morning, race Saturday afternoon and race again Sunday. Less laps of nonsense and more laps of meaningful business.
“I want it to be serious, it is not the F1 everyone is used to, so you have to be careful with two races. But I like racing, I don’t like practice so much. So, if it just meant that we could race more through a year, and do less practice, then that sounds good to me.” Ricciardo said.
The Australian is probably suggesting a qualifying for the initial short sprint race, one that will set up the grid for race day on Sunday.
So, effectively, fans will get to witness two races on a race weekend, a format that seems quite attractive and exciting.
