Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen says the new 2022 weekend format at non-sprint race events needs to change.
For this season F1 introduced a new schedule format, ostensibly to cut down the amount of time personnel spend at the track as the calendar expands.
While this is chiefly supported by a revised curfew system for team members, for drivers there is no longer an official press conference on Thursday – instead, that has moved to Friday morning, before practice.
This has been met with a mixed response. Some drivers are understood to prefer the earlier Friday start as it has bought back some time on Thursdays, but for others, who have to be on-site for other independently-arranged media commitments and team partner events, there is still a busy Thursday leading into an extended Friday.
Verstappen said: “It’s more about how we’re doing the press conferences and the media activities.
“I think it was better before. Because now our Thursday is very long, which officially is not really a day anymore.
“But actually, for us it’s same amount or even more on a Thursday and even more now on a Friday, where you come in early.
“I mean, coming in early is not a problem, but your whole day is longer.
“So going to more races, you would like to have a shorter weekend. But actually now with more races, we’re also having longer weekends. Or at least more days that we are actually at the track and doing stuff.
“That definitely needs to change.”
Verstappen’s suggestion is not to eliminate media sessions ahead of the weekend but hold them in a more efficient way.
One example he drew upon is the peculiar requirement those who attend the press conferences have of completing the 30-minute engagement – half of which is televised – then heading to the TV pen afterwards to spend the same amount of time going around individual TV broadcasters, where much of the same questions get asked.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s all on Thursday or on Friday, it’s more about ‘we do this, then we go outside, then we have to speak to all the individual media but they all ask the same question’,” Verstappen said.
“And you basically repeating yourself like six or seven times. And you try to of course keep it interesting to try and word it in a different way! But at the end of the day, you say the same thing, right?
“So what you see in other sports when they have a press conference, a lot of mics are just brought together. And actually instead of giving the broadcasters like two questions each, they all have basically, whatever, six or eight or 10 questions just in one go and they can all broadcast it.
“I think that’s also way more efficient and nicer for everyone. And it doesn’t matter if you have 20 mics lined up from all different kinds of companies. But you get a lot more out of the drivers.
“We know if we leave here we have to go outside and we have to repeat ourselves at least six to eight times.
“When you start it’s exciting, the first two, but when you continue to the other ones you know it’s just going to be boring.
“It’s not nice for them, it’s not nice for us, so I think we can be a lot more efficient with that.”
Haas F1 driver Kevin Magnussen echoed Verstappen’s ire, saying “my problem with it is that you go through a lot of interviews in the weekend and it’s hard because you’re answering the exact same questions”.
“Though it’s a subject that you’re excited about, that wears off through Thursday and then into Friday,” he continued. “It’s a bit hard to be authentic at the end after answering the same question 30 times. But, it’s not really up to me.
THE RACE SAYS
Verstappen might be alienating some high-paying television broadcasters when he questions the value of the TV pen but he will find a lot of allies in the F1 media following the criticism of the format as a whole.
The new schedule has been under fire from various members of the press. As one of the few who quite likes it, it’s worth noting there are some merits to it – chiefly that Thursday is now devoted more to independently arranged media opportunities, when it’s more relaxed, then Friday is a more dynamic and interesting day than before.
But there are obvious drawbacks. One is that these blocks of FIA press conferences on Friday produce fewer stories than before because there is an even shorter shelf life before track action begins and most of what has just been said is redundant – or at least forgotten about.
That makes it a waste of everybody’s time, as much as anything. So Verstappen’s proposal of going back to Thursday activities will have a lot of support in certain corners.
One idea would be to have a hybrid. Maybe a shorter FIA press conference line-up on Friday morning, for example, comprising eight or 10 drivers in two groups – then any driver not in that press conference has their own media session on Thursday afternoon.
It’s good that F1 has tried to mix up the format and it’s not without advantages. But Verstappen is right in that, so far at least, there are elements to the experiment that need changing.
