F1 "shouldn't be scared" of trying reverse-grid race - Red Bull team boss Christian Horner

Formula 1

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F1 "shouldn't be scared" of trying reverse-grid race - Horner

The debate continues over the possibility of such an event

Ian Parkes

Thursday 1 October 2020 10:10 Updated: 10:16

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes Formula 1 should be bold and at least stage one reverse-grid race believing it has nothing to lose.

The debate over such an event has been waged since the start of the season when F1's managing director motorsports Ross Brawn tried to introduce it for the second race in Austria, only for Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff to vote against.

Brawn has since resurrected the idea and is hoping to stage a 30-minute reverse-grid qualifying race at four grands prix next season.

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That would replace the current qualifying format, with the grid decided by championship order at the time, and the result forming the grid for the main event on Sunday.

While Horner can appreciate the pros and cons on both sides, overall he feels F1 should take the bull by the horns and give it a try.

"I suppose it’s conflicting in many ways," said Horner. "The racer in you and the purist says it’s absolutely the wrong thing to do.

"Then, of course, you see a race a little bit like in Monza [Italian GP] and that brings the point to the fore again of mixing things up, and obviously the best way of mixing things up is something like a reverse grid.

"That is artificial but inevitably, when you have the fastest car starting at the front of the race, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out that in many cases they will stay in grid order.

"So I think that Formula 1 shouldn’t be scared of perhaps trying something different."

Horner recognises, however, that for the integrity of the championship, such a race would likely have to be staged at what he has previously vouched for before, either an invitation or non-championship grand prix.

"It would be very interesting to see what the outcome of it would be because if you don’t try something you never know," added Horner. "I think it’s very easy that we get stuck into a rut of saying ‘That’s ridiculous, it wouldn’t work’.

"The purist in me says the same, but sometimes in life, you’ve got to try things and see what the outcome is.

"If that could be done in a manner that didn’t affect the championship, because I can’t see how you can have a different rule for one race to the other events, but maybe a non-championship race, an invitation race.

"We’ve got all these great new circuits that are pushing for races this year that we won’t be able to accommodate in future years, but if one event was selected to try a different format, to try something totally different, what would we have to lose?"

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