Toto Wolff, Fred Vasseur and Peter Bayer have all voiced their support for a Formula 1 rookie Sprint race at the end of the 2024 campaign at Abu Dhabi.
With limited testing in F1, rookies have little chance to test themselves in a Grand Prix machine.
The Testing of Previous Car Programme permits unlimited mileage in 2022 machines and all 10 F1 squads must run a rookie in at least two Free Practice 1 sessions throughout the season.
However, with the days of unlimited current testing long behind us, and with the Formula 2 schedule itself already busy, there is scant opportunity for rookies to test themselves at the highest level before being thrown into an F1 drive full-time, which seldom occurs with only 20 seats available.
As a result, a Sprint race format for rookies has been floated as a potential option during the post-season Abu Dhabi test and the F1 Commission has discussed the idea.
“I think we’re keen in giving rookie drivers more opportunity,” Mercedes boss Wolff told media including Motorsport Week during the Friday Italian Grand Prix press conference.
“The stretch is that if you give it to them on a Grand Prix race weekend, it’s going to impact the main drivers, or it could impact the main drivers’ performances.
“If you let them race on a main weekend, it could influence the race result, which could be pretty damaging if you’re fighting for a championship.
“So we really didn’t find another way of letting them go through this whole sequence of a race weekend, pushing the car, being able to make comparisons.
“Because with a day of racing in Abu Dhabi, they’re all going to be on the same fuel. They’re all going to be on the same tyre. And it will be interesting to see how they compare in those respective cars. And the season is finished.
“It’s going to be a strain for the team, obviously, because we have another day. But we are in the entertainment industry and that’s the best idea so far that we have come up to give them more driving time.”
Wolff ended his thoughts by saying, “Yeah, I think there was no one in the [F1 commission] that didn’t support the idea because we have all the same objectives.
“We want to give them more exposure, we want to give them running time and that is where we landed.”
Vasseur noted that “at the end of the day, we don’t have so many opportunities to give them the opportunity to test the car in the real condition and outside of the TPC system. And I think this opportunity could be a good one to also to give them the full weekend with a free practice quality and start. And so for sure, it’s not easy to organise and so, but I’m supportive.”
RB CEO Bayer commented that the strength of the single-seater pyramid means a talent pool is bottle-necking when it comes to F1, with only 20 drives available and countless drivers on multi-year contracts.
More often than not, F2 graduates are resigned to Reserve Driver roles, although a total of three rookies will line up on the 2025 F1 grid.
“I think if you see today how well the single-seater pyramid is working from karting, Formula 4, 3, 2, how much talent is coming up,” Bayer began.
“And obviously at the top there’s only 20 seats, so it’s quite complex for these guys to show their skills and at the same time FP1… I mean, as Toto just said, we had Kimi [Antonelli] in his first FP1, there is huge expectation, everybody’s watching it.
“You actually don’t know on what tyre he will go out. Sometimes there’s an accident, like last week, and then they get five minute time to run.
“So I think it would be great also because you know we would reach out to the younger fan base which is something that you know we’re keen to do and overall we would be certainly supportive.”
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