The changes Liberty must make to save F1 from itself

The United States Grand Prix was arguably Formula 1's best race of the 2018 season – and perhaps a few seasons before too. Three drivers from three different teams on three different strategies battled to the very end and finished within 2.5 seconds of each other. Rob Watts explores whether the unique circumstances of the COTA weekend provide a template to make F1 races routinely riveting.

Austin, Texas was lashed with rain on the Friday of the grand prix, preventing any team from running meaningfully in practice – Lewis Hamilton only completed nine laps across the sessions.

Not convinced it had an impact on the race? Consider this…

Max Verstappen described his Friday practice at the Japanese Grand Prix as "one of the worst of the season" but come the weekend, the Red Bull star qualified third and converted it into a podium finish.

Red Bull simulator driver Jake Dennis revealed on Instagram that he had put in over 100 laps of the Suzuka circuit overnight in order to dial out the setup issues that had plagued Verstappen and facilitate his sudden comfort with the car.

View this post on Instagram

Done enough laps of Suzuka to last me a life time! ???? lots of work done with some good gains! Now to enjoy my first weekend off in 4 months! ????????#suzukagp #F1 #Redbull #WorkHardPlayHarder

A post shared by Jake Dennis (@jakedennis19) on Oct 5, 2018 at 10:47am PDT

Compare this to COTA, where Lewis Hamilton could only take third from pole position as team-mate Valtteri Bottas also went backwards.

Hamilton suggested there had been some problems with the car in race trim that his Mercedes team were yet to identify, and that had played a role in him being forced onto a less effective two-stop tyre strategy.

Technical director James Allison followed that up by saying that the team had been "blind to the problems" due to the lack of dry running on Friday.

IS CUTTING PRACTICE THE ANSWER?

Given the gulf in performance between F1's top teams and its 'B Class' this season, it's clear that something needs to be done.

F1 plans to limit the aero-efficiency of front wings next season by introducing a simpler design and restricting the elements that teams can influence during the season.

That, in theory, sounds like a good start and should at least facilitate more overtaking but maybe more can be done.

By restricting or even scrapping Friday practice altogether, the top teams would be less able to rely on their huge resources to iron out many, if not all of their setup imperfections. Tyre degradation would become more of an unknown and there would likely be more varied strategies seen in the races.

A restriction on live telemetry, and a limit on factory simulator use during Grand Prix weekends would be a step further, but would likely be met with opposition from some of the teams, i.e. the wealthy ones.

Ross Brawn has already hinted that reducing the duration or number of practice sessions may be necessary if Liberty Media pushes forward with plans to expand the calendar to 25 races.

But there are other angles to consider that make such a change unlikely in the near future.

Race promoters tend to be interested in one thing and one thing only - ticket sales. Given the high fee many circuits pay to host an F1 race, can you blame them?

Any plans to reduce the amount of time that cars are on track would likely go against efforts to give race promoters a better product to sell - something Brawn says Liberty Media has been keen to do in the post-Ecclestone era.

The Formula E championship, of which Liberty Media holds a stake, has run with a condensed one-day format since its inception four years ago, providing the teams with much less time on track to prepare compared to many other series.

Comparisons with F1 are difficult for several reasons, but having worked a lot in the Formula E paddock, I can say with confidence that race engineers and drivers have to work harder and smarter as a result of the limited practice time and far fewer issues get ironed out between the end of practice and the race than they'd like.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo has suggested scrapping practice altogether and heading straight into qualifying on Saturday morning before a sprint race is held on Saturday afternoon with the main Grand Prix staying in its traditional slot on Sunday.

Seasoned F1 commentator Martin Brundle wants to go one step further suggesting sprint races to decide the grid with points awarded for overtakes, but realistically, a change in format as drastic as either is likely to prove unpopular with the traditionalists.

THE GPFANS PLAN TO FIX GRAND PRIX WEEKENDS

Perhaps there is a way for Liberty to please the die-hard fans, while adding a few extra variables to the racing and keeping the race promoters sufficiently satisfied as well.

No one wants to see an empty race circuit, so by making junior categories the main focus on Fridays, Liberty Media can offer cheaper ticket prices, enticing younger fans and families in the process while ensuring plenty of on-track action with a greater spotlight on young talent.

Saturdays can then be reserved mainly for F1 action by introducing a 90-minute practice session in the morning, with teams finishing fourth or lower in the previous year's constructors championship having the track to themselves for the first 30 minutes.

Following that, a historical F1 demo run would provide more on-track action to keep fans happy and would provide another angle for race promoters to attract fans of varied ages. Imagine seeing Jean Alesi touring around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in his 1995 race-winning Ferrari, or Damon Hill delighting the home crowd at Silverstone in his title-winning Williams from 1996.

We caught up with @F1MikaHakkinen at the #JapaneseGP to find out how it felt to be reunited with the MP4-13 at Suzuka, the track at which he won the 1998 World Championship. ???? ???? pic.twitter.com/KLpsDaLT7M — McLaren (@McLarenF1) October 9, 2018

Qualifying could be held as normal late on Saturday afternoon, with a 20-minute warmup session on Sunday morning prior to the race allowing the teams one last chance to shakedown their cars, but not long enough to work on any meaningful race simulations.

By cutting practice down from four hours to just two, with even less preparation time for the big three, the teams will be forced to make a choice as to whether to focus their efforts on preparing for qualifying or the race, but with limited time to optimise both.

As with all new ideas in F1, supporters old and new will have their own opinions on where F1's priorities lie, and it will always be a juggling act to ensure teams, fans, race promoters and television companies are on the same page.

With close races like Sunday's US Grand Prix become rarer and rarer, the time has come for a change and for Liberty Media to realise that sometimes F1 needs saving from itself.