Friday night briefing to be scrapped?

The FIA is considering scrapping the traditional Friday night driver's meeting in favour of a joint meeting between drivers and constructor teams on the Thursday before anyone takes to the track, according to the FIA's technical racing director, Charlie Whiting.

Traditionally, team managers meet with the FIA on Thursdays with the drivers not joining the conversation until Friday - usually to give the race organisers feedback on the track from their first free practice sessions.

In 2019 the format may be changed, but Whiting claims that no decision has been made yet.

“It is a suggestion only at the moment,” Whiting said.

“It certainly won’t happen this year, unless everyone wants it to happen.”

The reason for the proposed change, according to Whiting, is that team managers are guilty of not passing on relevant information to their drivers between the constructor meeting and the driver meeting, meaning that facts are often repeated.

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“The main reason I have suggested this is simply that we discuss things in the team managers’ meeting on the basis that they will pass them onto their drivers,” the FIA director confessed.

“When we get to the drivers’ meeting it is quite evident that sometimes this hasn’t happened and we have to go through it all again.”

Another reason for the alteration is reported to be because of the scattered start times of the Grand Prix races throughout the season, meaning that practice, qualifying, and the race proper can sometimes finish later than in previous years.