New F1 Proposal: More Free Practice for Young Drivers in 2025
Jul.31 - Formula 1 is considering how to open up more opportunities for rookie drivers, according to mounting reports.
La Gazzetta dello Sport claims that at the recent F1 Commission meeting, a proposal for a 'wildcard' system forcing teams to field a rookie in grands prix at least once or twice a season was discussed.
However, adding an occasional third entry per team was apparently ruled out on cost grounds, while teams also could not agree that an existing race driver should simply sit out a race in deference to a youngster.
Another proposal still on the table is a one-off F1 sprint race only for rookie or inexperienced drivers, perhaps to take place in Abu Dhabi following the season finale.
Either initiative would be music to the ears of some of the most 'forgotten' promising young drivers - like 2023 F2 runner-up Frederik Vesti, who is now a low-profile simulator driver for Mercedes.
The 22-year-old Dane's manager, Dorte Riis Madsen, told Ekstra Bladet that seeing newcomers like Kimi Antonelli (17) get promoted above Vesti's head is "worse than frustrating".
"It's difficult to see how other drivers are in play, while we are not mentioned in the same context," she said.
"We constantly receive enquiries from elsewhere, but when we only want to be in Formula 1, the joy is not the same as getting those calls from Japan, the USA or elsewhere.
"In reality, all it would take is a copy-paste of (Liam) Lawson or (Oliver) Bearman so that he could get an opportunity for a race weekend or two," added Riis Madsen.
"I have heard a lot of talk about wanting to put young drivers in the sprint races, but that has been pushed to the corner," she revealed.
"But there's still something about there being more free practice for young drivers next year."
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A non-championship sprint race following the Abu Dhabi GP or generally is easy in theory, but less so in practice, so easier said than achieved.
Teams, of course, can already give as many practice sessions to non-regulars as they wish, but the current minimum requirement of two or one on each garage side is good.
Times past, before the ban on development activities between races, young up and coming drivers would gain experience testing cars and stringing together lots of laps. That's one of the down sides of restricting on track development activities!
How about a radical idea ~ apart from practice sessions, young drivers be given 3 or 4 qualifying sessions each season to qualify their team's starting position on the grid. The team could nominate which driver's car would be qualified by the understudy driver. For example, in the current situation, Liam Lawson would qualify Sergio Perez's car, as Max needs the points for the WDC.
in the nineties the top teams would be testing every week , with a full test team, so the reserve driver was so familiar with the race car hed be on it from 1st lap, ok that was before sims but the bouncy bouncy thing Merc started whinging about just wouldnt have been there, thats why all the teams are based around Stone, with pumping out more Co2 than the rest of the world put together, Hybrid racing is pointless, till ChinaLand stops burning more and more and more coal, sustainable fuel YES recyclable Carbon fibre Yes, but expensive race Hybrids , Why? Motor Mfrs dont need F1 hybrids, the late nineties Prius tells us that, the cheapest brand new full electric in UK today the Dacia Spring @ 15k says it all