Formula 1 revamp planned

Formula One could face a drastic reinvention if new owners Liberty Media get their way, as the group are planning to make changes in an effort to make the sport more appealing to the American public.

The US has always been a notorious difficult nut for F1 to crack, but it is believed that under US ownership, the sport may find a more welcoming audience.

A proposal under serious consideration is a big revamp of the race weekend along with re-aligning the calendar to be more US and Europe-friendly.

Currently, there is a morning and afternoon practice on Friday, a third practice on Saturday followed by qualifying and then the race on Sunday.

Liberty Media have suggested a short ‘sprint’ race on Saturday along with drastically shortening the Sunday as a possible solution to capture the US public and entice them away from the hugely-popular NASCAR. A total removal of Friday practice would also be considered in an effort to condense the whole show to two days.

The ideas mooted have surprisingly receive da warm reaction from some senior team figures, including one anonymous front-running team owner.

He said: “It’s doable. There’s scope to do something different on race weekends. At the moment, Sunday is show time and everything else just builds towards that.

“From a team point of view, two race days make sense, though at the moment contracts with promoters make provision for cars on track over three days, so any change would have to take account of that.”

Some rule changes are already in place for2017. Drivers such as McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and the retired Mark Webber have previously complained that Formula One cars have become far too easy to drive in the past decade - that, and they can’t be driven to their limit for anywhere near a race’s entirety.

Therefore, the current raft of rule changes, and the first major overhaul since 2014, is aimed to speed up the cars, make racing more exciting, and make some inroads into the eternal difficulties of overtaking.

For the first time since 1997, the cars will be two metres wide - 20 centimetres wider than they have been for the past20 years.

With this, the width of the tyres has also been increased by more than 20 per cent - the aim being to generate more mechanical grip and thus raise cornering speeds.

The consequences of these changes include an increase in drag, which will see a commensurate rise in fuel consumption;accordingly, the car’s minimum weight limit and fuel allowance have been slackened (702kg to 722kg and 100kg to 105kg respectively).

The front wings aren’t just getting wider, they’re getting a bit pointy too. The nose is being lengthened by 20cm in order to create the desired effect.

More technically, the teams now have 20cmmore space on the front wings in which to place all manner of aerodynamic drapery - the intended effect being greater scope for cars to generate down force.

Although the height of the cars remains unchanged, the height of the rear wing has been lowered by 15cm.  It will also be 15cm wider, be mounted 20cmfurther back and be angled to have a greater overhang.

Some race regulations have been altered too. Races that are wet enough to warrant starting behind the safety car will now be run from a standing start on the grid - once the track has been deemed safe and the safety car has peeled off.

This is a repsonse to the backlash to prolonged safety-car starts at Monaco and Silverstone in 2016; the safety car stayed out in both cases despite many drivers saying it was fine to race, and cars pitted immediately after the restarts to change their wet tyres for intermediates.