(Motorsports news) Two crashes caused FP2 of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to be stopped for a total of 37 minutes and Daniel Ricciardo showed his concerns on the stoppage time. Carlos Sainz of Ferrari lost the lead at Turn 3 and collided with the outer barriers, resulting in a 27-minute red flag period. Nico Hulkenberg slammed his Haas into the wall coming out of Turn 1 three minutes after the track was green again.
This came after ten rookie drivers participated in an FP1 session, which allowed teams to meet the FIA requirements at the last minute to run a rookie in each of their vehicles for the whole of a season. Ricciardo believed that the countdown to the practice session, which lasted an hour, needed to be stopped since the regular drivers were not getting as much running as they would have liked. This would be a system similar to American football or basketball.
“It would be nice to stop the clock if there isn’t anything on track after F1,” stated Ricciardo. “A number of drivers are kind of facing down an FP2 with like five laps or whatever, but I did FP1. So, perhaps getting a little bit of time back would have been good. “That’s something we can discuss in the drivers’ briefing tonight Friday, and look for a few more rule changes!”, Ricciardo added.
Ricciardo believed that the countdown to the practice session, which lasted an hour, needed to be stopped since the regular drivers were not getting as much running as they would have liked. This would be a system similar to American football or basketball. “It would be nice to stop the clock if there isn’t anything on track after F1,” stated Ricciardo.”A number of drivers are kind of facing down an FP2 with like five laps or whatever, but I did FP1. So, perhaps getting a little bit of time back would have been good.
“That’s something we can discuss in the drivers’ briefing tonight Friday and look for a few more rule changes!” A 30-minute qualifying session for the United Arab Emirates FIA Formula 4 championship was held on the track after Formula 2. Hulkenberg took the Australian side after having contributed to the disruptions. “I think it’s a very fair point,” he said.
“There are undoubtedly more ramifications, such as the need to alter TV timings and the remainder of the program. It’s probably not as simple as we believe. “But it’s clear that Carlos’ red signal on the barrier repair cost us a good twenty minutes. Thus, it will undoubtedly come up for discussion in the future.”
However, Valtteri Bottas, an Alfa Romeo driver, was unimpressed with the idea since he thought F1 already had too much practice running and that, with the resources at its disposal, the teams could cut back on track time. He declared: “It’s the same for everyone else, so I don’t think [we need changes].” In any case, we practice too much these days. It is excessive to have three practices.
“We don’t need that anymore with the simulation tools and simulators we have nowadays.”
Also read: AlphaTauri discloses the extent of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix floor modifications
