Talking on the current Italian Grand Prix, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali stated a venture is on the desk for F1 to organise a rookie dash race on the post-season Abu Dhabi check.
Our F1 writers weigh up the practicalities of the proposal.
Jonathan Noble – The concept’s sensible points are usually not insurmountable
When discuss of a rookie dash race after the Abu Dhabi check first popped up, it gave the impression to be a kind of left-field concepts that will get short-shrift from everybody.
Like reverse grids for grands prix, wildcard entries to switch the present stars, or sprinklers to randomly soak tracks, there have been loads of wacky proposals through the years that pop up, get mentioned after which shortly fall away.
However as the main points of the rookie dash thought have been digested by paddock regulars and staff bosses, it’s clear that the idea has some advantage, even when there are issues to beat.
The essential premise is straightforward: get the ten rookie drivers who might be collaborating within the post-Abu Dhabi GP check on the Tuesday after the season finale, give them a qualifying session midway via the day after which placed on a dash race within the late night.
Franco Colapinto, Williams FW45
Picture by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Photographs
The benefit might be, on this period of very restrictive testing, of giving the children some useful expertise of each a low-fuel run after which a race-stint fashion distance to higher perceive each battling wheel-to-wheel with different automobiles and the way tyres behave over lengthy stints.
There are some challenges in making it occur although, together with framing appropriate rules, the query of additional personnel/prices that groups might have, the elevated dangers of automobile harm, the FIA infrastructure wanted to police and run it after which the difficulty of how it’s broadcast – and what affect that has on present F1 channels.
Whereas not simple to tick all these parts off (and maybe it’s an excessive amount of of a stretch to get issues sorted for this 12 months), none of it’s insurmountable. Like every thing in life, if there’s a will there’s a approach.
With groups clearly motivated to carry on the subsequent technology of drivers and accepting that the present two FP1 periods rookies can get might be not sufficient, that there appears to be unanimous assist from groups to discover a answer most likely means it can get throughout the road ultimately. And it’s one thing that ought to be embraced.
As Mercedes boss Toto Wolff stated: “It is going to be a pressure for the staff, clearly, as a result of we have now one other day. However we’re within the leisure business, and that is one of the best thought to this point that we have now come as much as give them extra driving time.”
Mark Mann-Bryans – A technique to introduce tomorrow’s stars to F1’s aggressive edge
The introduction of a dash race for rookies on the season’s finish is a implausible technique to give up-and-coming drivers true time behind the wheel of a Method 1 automobile.
There’s little or no to be discovered by operating uncooked expertise in FP1 periods all through the season, when focus is on automobile set-up and efficiency – it doesn’t provide a good reflection on the power of the teenager coming into the seat and can be doubtlessly dangerous to whichever driver is having to sit down out the hour-long first run of a grand prix weekend.
Jack Doohan, Alpine A523
Picture by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Photographs
Andrea Kimi Antonelli crashed out simply 10 minutes into his FP1 debut for Mercedes in Monza as he was making an attempt to push to the restrict, however in a session the place the opposite 19 runners have been going about their race preparations and set-up.
The Abu Dhabi check has additionally beforehand provided one other alternative however, as soon as once more, it’s nearly performative by nature – the season has ended, there isn’t any racing, simply operating and it serves solely so as to add extra laps onto a driver’s CV.
A dash would carry curiosity, enhance the aggressive fringe of operating rookies and never solely assist them reduce their enamel however present what they may do below the highlight of an precise race.
Restrict every staff to at least one automobile, preserve the identical ruling as the present Abu Dhabi check – no driver can participate if they’ve competed in additional than two grands prix – and really give among the sport’s future world champions a platform to indicate what they will do.
There doesn’t must be any tangible reward, a podium can be greater than sufficient, with the chance to catch the attention as the principle attraction for these collaborating.
Filip Cleeren – An opportunity for left-field entrants like IndyCar’s O’Ward?
I feel the concept of getting rookie dash races makes an enormous quantity of sense. It’s a travesty that younger drivers get so little seat time in up to date F1 automobiles, and two FP1 periods per 12 months actually do not reduce it. Simply ask 2025 debutant Jack Doohan, who noticed his Canada outing with Alpine halted after simply three laps with a mechanical challenge.
Below the – wise – price range cap the times of infinite testing have lengthy gone, and it has since been a typical theme that upcoming drivers have discovered it laborious to get seat time except their mother or father staff invests in a programme testing a earlier automobile. Some groups, like Mercedes has executed with Antonelli, have gone all in to particularly put together a driver for a race seat, however not each staff has the accessible automobile or check staff to take action.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes F1 W15
Picture by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Photographs
Holding a rookie dash on the finish of the season solves just a few points in a single fell swoop. The groups and their gear are already there, and the automobile and spare components might be out of date after the check anyway, so the affect on the price range cap ought to be minimal.
One of many excellent points would be the operational burden of organising one other occasion – with marshals, race management and presumably some type of TV protection – on a Wednesday, whereas additionally including to the workload of staff personnel after a gruelling Las Vegas – Qatar – Abu Dhabi triple-header, which means groups will possible must ferry out and in extra workers.
From a sporting perspective, there’s nothing just like the stress of an precise qualifying session and a race, and going via that complete programme with a battle-hardened Method 1 race staff might be a useful expertise. Because the affect of F2 and F3 outcomes on F1 promotion dwindles, we frequently hear how spectacular sure drivers have been in personal testing, however now we’d truly get to see it with our personal eyes.
With groups possible fielding one automobile that includes a member of their younger driver academy, I can not assist however daydream about among the different left-field choices that would spice issues up. How effectively somebody like Pato O’Ward would fare has been a query on lots of followers’ lips, and the Mexican has earlier expertise of Abu Dhabi as a participant in final 12 months’s rookie check. I’d like to see McLaren give him a semi-competitive outing, because the (too condensed) IndyCar season might be lengthy over by then. Get him within the automobile!
Attainable driver line-ups
Crimson Bull: Isack Hadjar
McLaren: Pato O’Ward or Gabriel Bortoleto
Racing Bulls: Ayumu Iwasa
Ferrari: Oliver Bearman or Robert Shwartzman
Mercedes: Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Alpine: Jack Doohan
Sauber: Theo Pourchaire
Williams: Zak O’Sullivan
Aston Martin: Felipe Drugovich
Haas: Oliver Bearman or Pietro Fittipaldi
