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Ecclestone wants two 40-minute F1 races with break

Bernie Ecclestone says Formula One should look at changing its format to have two 40-minute races with a break in the middle each weekend.

The format of the race weekend was under discussion at the end of last year, with a number of drivers - including Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen - saying F1 should be more open to change. Following the disjointed Brazilian Grand Prix, which featured two red flag periods, Ecclestone says two separate races close together would be appealing to fans.

"People have a much shorter attention span and a lot of sports are looking at introducing shorter forms of their games," Ecclestone told The Sunday Times.

"The television audiences went up for Brazil. We had a long race with the heavy rain and a couple of crashes, but that meant we had two starts because of the red flags and people tuned in.

"We need to look at the traditional concept of one long race. Two 40-minute races with a 40-minute break in the middle when the drivers could be interviewed, cars worked on, would be attractive to viewers, the TV companies, the sponsors, and advertisers would love it.

"Cars would qualify on a Saturday as usual for the first race and that would set the grid for the second. It would shake things up with lighter, faster cars.

"But I don't know if we have the courage to change. Times change though and it is something we must look at.

"All American sports have time-outs built in, mainly because American audiences can't concentrate. They grow up with everything in 15-minute segments on TV. People are the same everywhere now."

The last race weekend format change saw F1 trial elimination-style qualifying at the start of this season, which was widely criticised and eventually dropped in favour of the previous knockout format after just two races.

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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.