Hamilton calls for 'switch up' in race weekend format

Lewis Hamilton has apologised to fans for the lack of on-track action on Friday at the Shanghai International Circuit.

And the Mercedes driver said it should be a wake up call to the sport and new owners Liberty to make changes.

"So sorry for all u either watching on TV or here at the track," he posted on social media on Friday. "We must find a solution to deal with weather issue."

"Seriously tho, this could actually be a blessing in disguise," he added. "A chance for new bosses to be proactive & be creative."

Hamilton has previously proposed reducing the Grand Prix weekend to just two days. That would mean packing more in to the Saturday programme.

"[Saturday] program: 3 practice sessions, qualifying Sunday morning and then race. Who's down for the switch up?" he tweeted on Friday.

China FP2 session abandoned over visibility concerns

Friday saw just 22 minutes of track action in the morning before concerns about the weather led to a red flag. The afternoon session was completely abandoned, because the safety helicopter was put out of service by poor visibility.

"The track was absolutely fine and we could have run all day today with no issue if it weren't for the clouds," Hamilton said.

"It's not good for the fans watching on TV. It's even worse for all those people in the stands, who have paid money to come out here.

"They've barely seen a car on track today, which must be tough for them. We need to work together with the FIA and FOM to find a solution or an alternative plan of some kind when we have circumstances like this in the future."

The weather is expected to improve for Saturday, but rain will return overnight on Saturday and could be an issue for the Chinese Grand Prix. That's led to suggestions that the FIA should pack an hour long practice session, qualifying and the race onto Saturday.

However, worldwide TV arrangements mean that's unlikely to happen at such short notice.

GALLERY: All the pictures from Friday in Shanghai

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.