The weekend with Sprint in Florida has only one day of testing and the federation has decided to extend its duration to help the teams
The changes to the regulations, approved by the teams in the meeting with the FIA on Monday, will not be the only thing to change during the Miami weekend of May 1-3. The long-awaited return of Formula 1, at the end of the long five-week break due to the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia GPs, will in fact be dominated by a single free practice session – as per the regulations on Sprint format weekends – which in this case will however be extended. The FP1 in Florida, on the circuit that runs around the famous Hard Rock Stadium, will last 90 minutes instead of the traditional 60. A choice that does not come as a surprise on the part of the Federation, thanks to the new changes made to the regulations – in terms of energy management – which the teams will have to test on the American circuit during the only session available. At this already fundamental point, we add the profound changes to the cars brought by the teams to America, with radical updates which in some cases will see almost completely revised versions of the single-seaters take to the track, therefore requiring more time – compared to the only 60 minutes usually available – for the evaluation of the aerodynamic packages brought to the track.
format unchanged
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The remaining format of the weekend will not change in Florida: on Friday, after FP1, it will be the turn of Sprint qualifying, necessary to define the starting grid of the Sprint race. On Saturday it will be the turn of Sprint and qualifying for the race and on Sunday the event of the day will be, as per tradition, the Grand Prix. Miami will be the second race weekend with a Sprint format after the already archived one in Shanghai. After Miami it will immediately be the turn of another Sprint weekend, in Montreal, Canada, scheduled for May 22-24. For the moment only the Miami session has been modified, with the duration of FP1 being increased by thirty minutes, and we will return to the normal 60 minutes starting from Canada.