Magnussen claims F1 weekend change "hasn't worked"

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Magnussen claims F1 weekend change "hasn't worked"

Mixed reaction to reduce race weekends from four to three days

Sam Hall

Monday 2 May 2022 17:00

Kevin Magnussen has claimed F1's weekend schedule changes introduced to reduce the workload of drivers this year have failed to work.

F1 has cut its timetable from four days to three this season, with the once traditional Thursday media sessions for the drivers scrapped and moved to Friday morning.

Although teams are still permitted to host media briefings on Thursdays should they wish to do so, the vast majority do not.

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The knock-on effect, however, is Fridays are now far busier, with what was previously two days of work crammed into one.

"If the reason for the change was to make the weekend shorter, that certainly hasn’t worked," assessed Magnussen. "But for me, that's okay.

"My problem with it is that you go through a lot of interviews in a weekend and it's hard because you're answering the exact same question.

"So although it's about a subject you're very excited about, that wears off, through Thursday and then into Friday.

"It becomes a bit hard to be authentic at the end when you've answered the same question 30 times."

F1 "can improve" schedule

Reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen is among those who have made clear the schedule "definitely needs to change".

Agreeing with the pair, Sebastian Vettel added: "I think Kevin hit the nail on the head. The incentive was to make it [the weekend] shorter. It hasn't worked, so I think we need to improve. We can improve.

"The main thing is you want us to be excited if you have the same questions for an hour. It's not going to be.

"We've all been to the TV and basically our excitement is not at its peak. We need to find a better way."

Additional reporting by Ian Parkes