FP2 of the season finale of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was interrupted for a total of 37 minutes due to two crashes.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz lost track at Turn 3 and crashed into the outside barrier, resulting in a 27-minute red flag. Three minutes after the track turned green again, Nico Hulkenberg spun his Haas out of Turn 1 and crashed into the wall.
This followed an FP1 session with 10 new drivers, and was the last opportunity for teams to meet the FIA’s standard of running a new driver in each car during the season.
With regular drivers’ limited running time, Ricciardo thought it was necessary to pause the one-hour practice session countdown to avoid taking away too much driving time from the drivers. This is a system similar to basketball or American football.
“If it wasn’t for that,” Ricardo said. [anything on track after F1]you can stop the clock.
“I ran FP1 and a lot of drivers didn’t, so they were kind of sitting around in FP2 for five laps or so. So maybe it would have been nice to get a little bit more time back. I don’t know.”
“That’s something we can discuss at the drivers’ briefing tonight.” [Friday] And look for some more rule changes! ”
Photo courtesy of Steven Tee/ motorsport images
Marshalls remove Nico Hulkenberg’s damaged car, Haas VF-23, after crash in FP2
Following FP2, the track was required for a 30-minute qualifying session for the UAE FIA F4 series.
After contributing to the break, Hulkenberg sided with the Australian. He thought: ‘I think that’s a very fair point.
“Obviously there are other implications and how the rest of the schedule and TV times and things like that have to change. It’s probably not as easy as we think.”
“But obviously we lost 20 minutes with Carlos’ red flag with the barrier repair, so that’s probably going to be a point of discussion going forward.”
However, Alfa Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas was cold to the suggestion, believing that F1 already had too many practice runs and that given the tools available to teams, track times could be reduced.
He said: “I don’t think so.” [we need changes], because it’s the same for everyone else. Anyway, I have too much practice today. Three practices is too many.
“With today’s simulation tools and simulators, that’s no longer necessary.”
