Drivers behind Domenicali: 'Maximum two FP's is more than enough'

Last weekend, Stefano Domenicali managed to get all the spotlight. A quote from the Formula 1 CEO appeared, in which he stated he was not in favour of free practice sessions. In Melbourne, where three practice sessions will be held these days, some drivers were asked what they think about abolition?

If it is up to Mercedes' George Russell, free practice sessions will not be stopped completely: "I think obviously the more practice you do, the more up to speed you'll be, the more comfortable you'll be with the car. I don't think it's right that Formula 1 has three times the amount of practice that you have in the F3 and F2 category. They should be the ones getting more practice, also because they're doing less races but don't get to test that often. No practices would be too little. I wasn't in favour of the sprint races initially. I really enjoy the sprint races and having action on a Friday I think is vital for all of us and also for the entertainment factor," Russell said.

'Good to talk about the format'

Pierre Gasly of Alpine echoes Russell's words: "Definitely, three is not needed as a driving point of view. It's always nice. You can work on fine details on the car and really try to nail that car balance for the weekend. Generally speaking, I think one, two maximum is more than enough for us. I kind of agree. In sprint races, we've had different feedbacks. I think there's a lot of discussions on what to explore and how to increase the entertainment and racing on that one. I think it's good to always question what we're doing and looking at how we can improve the format and the whole format of the weekend in general."

Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri) and Logan Sargeant (Williams) agree with their colleagues: the number of free practice sessions may well be reduced. Nico Hulkenberg, turning out for Haas, is in the minority. "Thinking back to what George said about junior series, I quite enjoyed it at the time. Having only 30 minutes like in F2 and then get thrown into quali. I think it's a matter of personal preference and opinion. We could discuss that for a long time probably."