FIA mulls scrapping traditional Friday drivers' briefing

The F1 drivers' briefing that traditionally takes place late on Friday afternoons after free practice could be scrapped by the FIA at all venues next year.

The meeting has been a fixture the race weekend's schedule for decades but the current lack of utility of the gathering has prompted the governing body to organize a joint meeting between team managers and their drivers on Thursday's media day.

The current agenda calls for team managers to meet on Thursday to discuss specific topics related to track changes or procedures. Drivers then get together with FIA race director Charlie Whiting the following day to review the day's activity and offer feedback on any issues they may have.

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The idea of scrapping the Friday get-together and regrouping everyone on Thursday is still conditional however, as Whiting explains.

"It’s a suggestion only at the moment. It certainly won’t happen this year, unless everyone wants it to happen," he says.

"The main reason that I have suggested this is simply that we discuss things in the team managers’ meeting on the basis that they will pass them onto their drivers, and when we get to the drivers’ meeting, it’s quite evident that sometimes this hasn’t happened, and we have to go through it all again."

Whiting points out that with communication now happening in real time, when a problem out on the track emerges it is brought to light almost instantly by the drivers to their team.

"One of the main reasons for having the drivers’ briefing on Friday, after the first day of running, was so that they could tell us what they have seen, like a marshal doing something on the track," he adds...

"But it really isn’t of any value, because whenever they see anything, they tell us anyway.

"There’s a far better communication system now. I just think it would make a lot of sense and save everyone a lot of hassle, really."

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