Bernie Ecclestone has described Friday’s lack of on-track action “disastrous”, after rain showers resulted in the majority of cars remaining in their garages.
Only half of the grid completed a timed lap during first practice in front of a packed Silverstone crowd, whilst the most laps completed by a single driver, Daniel Ricciardo, was just ten.
The 82-year-old, speaking to reporters on Friday, expressed his unhappiness over the situation and called for a change to the tyre regulations to combat the problem.
“It was disastrous for Formula 1,” he said. “They need to change the regulations to ensure this sort of thing does not happen. The FIA and the teams need to sort it out.
“People pay good money, and there is a television audience to think about, too,” he added.
The World Motor Sport Council has approved a rule change allowing one additional set of dry tyres for each driver to be used in the first 30 minutes of FP1, but that wouldn’t have helped in this situation.
Ecclestone suggested his own idea: “Maybe it should be that they get six sets of tyres to use on a Friday and if they do not run, we take away that number from their Saturday total.”
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