Plans To Limit Friday Running Are Dropped

Plans to limit Friday practice to one session as part of cost cutting measures have been dropped.

Fans had been unhappy with the loss of a practice session, and race promoters feared that the lack of Friday running would damage ticket sales.

The idea had been to hold a single Friday practice session in a bid to reduce travelling expenses, but this was rejected by the F1 Commission, along with plans to ban tyre warmers, which was rejected due to safety concerns.

The F1 Commission did agree on a change to the testing schedule, though, and from 2015, there will be only two mid-season tests, instead of the four which were brought in for 2014. Pre-season testing will also take place exclusively in Europe from next year, while this year saw two tests taking place in Bahrain.

The FIA World Motorsport Council will meet in Munich next week to ratify the changes.