Lewis Hamilton Believes F1 Should Do Away With Friday Practice For Two Reasons

One would imagine that more practice leads to a sense of gaining perfection; however, Lewis Hamilton believes that not having free practice sessions on a Friday has its own set of positives.

The defending champion made history when he equaled Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 race wins. What’s more impressive is the fact that the Briton did not get an opportunity to experience the track properly beforehand.

On this occasion, bad weather led to the Friday sessions being canceled at the Nurburgring. As a result, drivers had to prepare for qualifying with just the one-hour practice session on the track.

Lewis Hamilton thinks lack of practice makes it more ‘challenging’

Considering this was a track that had not conducted a Grand Prix for 7 years, it was imperative that drivers gained familiarity with more practice. But the element of uncertainty sometimes makes the sport a spectacle.

Speaking in the post-race press conference, Hamilton surmised, “Well, I think the lack of practice, I think, made it more challenging. I’m quite happy to not do a Friday. I love driving but there are lots of positives that come from it.

“One, there’s 22 days less of 20 cars bombing around the track and polluting the air, the planet, so that’s a positive. But secondly, I think it just made it so much harder for us.

“When you start on a Saturday, you’ve got no time. You’ve got that one session to really get on top of it and the set-up between practice and qualifying.”

The Eifel Grand Prix saw a lot of racing action and drama

Although it cannot exactly be pinpointed to a lack of practice, there were certainly a number of spins and lockups. Sebastian Vettel’s wild spin saw him go off the area around the turn.

In addition, there were quite a few mechanical failures that saw cars being taken off the track enduringly. Valtteri Bottas, who was leading the race, suffered the same fate as the Mercedes power unit failed to back him up this time around.

Introducing lesser practice sessions might just improve the competitiveness of the sport. Possibly, it is an area that the FIA could look into and set up a trial to gauge whether it is beneficial to the sport.