New F1 weekend schedule: Friday practice starts later due to media sessions

F1 News

26 January 2022 at 15:05
Last update 26 January 2022 at 17:36
  • GPblog.com

The Formula 1 season has a record number of races this year with no less than 23 venues. The organization is therefore trying to limit the number of events as much as possible. As a result, the weekend schedule in 2022 will consist of not four, but three days. Sky Sports now know more about the new schedule.

F1 wants to shorten the year for the teams, who will be busier than ever. Normally, media activities always took place on Thursday, including the official press conference with the drivers. Those media sessions will now be moved to Friday morning.

Similarly, Monaco, which normally has a media day on Wednesday with practice sessions on Thursday, will now change to a three-day event from Friday to Sunday. The press conference with the team bosses will be moved from Friday afternoon to Saturday morning.

Session times change

The first and second free practice sessions will take place later in the day due to the media sessions. It was previously announced that Formula 1 will also use the shorter format this season, with free practice sessions lasting only one hour instead of one and a half hours. The specific times of the sessions will be announced later.

The regulations state that media activities must last no more than two hours and must be completed no later than one and a half hours before the start of FP1. Whether the schedule will look different during weekends with a sprint race is still unclear.