F1 team’s ponder Friday time trial

Formula One drivers could compete in a $1 million dollar fastest lap competition on the Friday of race weekends as part of a re-vamp of the system. The idea has been made public by McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh, head of the sporting working group of the newly-formed Formula One Teams Association.

The ‘Jackpot Friday’ is likely to be recommended to the FIA at the end of the season as an alternative to the largely pointless Friday testing sessions. “We are looking at the whole format of a race weekend,” he told autosport.com. “At the moment we have formulated a Friday testing format, but in reality no one is doing the normal disciplined testing. We are preparing for the race.

“So we say, ‘Is this good value? Does it help the show?’. Or do you perhaps do something where you say ‘Let’s cut it down to 45 minutes only’. Maybe you give a completely different specification of tyres, a really hard tyre, and you create a mini-competition where everyone tries to set the fastest time and you give a million dollars to the winning driver?’

“It means there would be something to write about and it introduces the weekend. It is separate from the race. So there are all those sort of ideas about.”

It would certainly be an interesting spectacle and would be more competitive than Friday testing for obvious reasons. Whether McLaren and Ferrari drivers need to take it in turns to line their pockets with an extra $1 million every other weekend is questionable!

Would you welcome Jackpot Friday?