Lewis Hamilton says Formula One “should not be scared” to trial new race weekend formats this year as way to lay the groundwork ahead of planned 2017 technical rule changes.
The sport’s latest experiment resulted in the much-derided elimination-style qualifying system, which was canned after it flopped badly in the opening two rounds of the season.
Always eager to make the show more exciting, F1’s key stakeholders have toyed with the idea of tweaking the current grand prix format for some time, with proposals including sprint races on Saturdays, reversed grids, or condensed two-day events.
“I just feel like they shouldn't be scared to try things," Hamilton is quoted as saying by Autosport.
“We've gone back to the same qualifying rule, which we knew we already should have done in the last race after Australia but then it was a failure in the second one, which we knew it would be.
“No new ideas have come out, which is not great.
“I definitely think we should use this year as an opportunity to come up with some ideas and test some things which have a small implication on the race weekend.
“If the fans saw that we tried another new format and it didn't work, sure they might not like it, but they would at least know that we are trying and we are in that development phase for next year.”
Hamilton is quick to add that he does not have the magic solution to make the race weekend format more enthralling but feels that keeping the status quo would be a mistake.
“For the last 10 years it's pretty much been the same Thursday to Sunday.”
“I love the driving, but for sure if the format was different each weekend it would be exciting for people.
“It doesn't have to be every weekend, but if you had a super race weekend or three heats, I don't know, but something different.
“It needs to be different, because 21 races of the same weekend, I just think we should shake it up a bit.”
In the wake of the qualifying debacle, Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams said F1 should stop experimenting in public or it runs the risks of facing similar backlashes.
The sport's bosses are due to meet next week in the Strategy Group and F1 Commission in order to finalise plans for next year's technical and sporting regulations.
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