Formula 1 is considering “fundamental” changes to the format of grand prix weekends from 2021 which could include shorter races, a new qualifying system and less practice time.

Sporting director Steve Nielsen, who worked for Renault, Toro Rosso, Williams and other F1 teams before joining Formula One Management, explained how fans have been asked for their input into the proposed changes.

“There are some fundamental questions being asked, of all of us, as well as fans,” he said.

“For example, we’re asking about what kind of weekend format we should be pursuing; how much free practice should there be; how many races should we have; should there be more than one Formula 1 race on a weekend, what should qualifying be? We have our own ideas but we want to gauge opinion, as many opinions as possible.”

F1 must be open to change in response to dwindling audiences, said Nielsen.

“Viewing figures were declining. There has been an improvement but Formula 1 needs to change to engage with a wider audience.

“There are many people under the age of 30 for whom Formula 1 is of little interest. We need to retain the core values of the sport, while at the same time appealing to a younger audience. If we neglect that the sport will be in trouble.

“It is a difficult line to walk but that is what we have to do. Perhaps that does mean shorter race, or slightly less free practice, more sudden-death situations. People engage with sport in a lot of different ways and they don’t necessarily want to give up a Sunday afternoon or a Saturday afternoon to do it. So every idea has to be on the table.”

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Nielson believes the race weekend can also “make Formula 1 cheaper without affecting the show.”

“There is an awful lot of time and effort that goes into F1 that in no way contributes to the show,” he explained.

“If teams work until midnight on a Friday night no one sees any of that. Teams do it because the regulations allow for it. If those eight hours of work was suddenly limited to two hours, well, F1 teams are very smart organisations and they would very quickly modify their procedures to fit with that.

“In terms of technology, if a Formula 1 car has five types of front wing and three types of rear wing, the viewer doesn’t know that when he watches the race on a Sunday. It makes no difference to the show.”

Cutting the overall length of race weekends could also help teams by reducing the demands on staff, Nielsen added.

“Purely on the team side there are fewer and fewer people on that would choose to make a career out of being a Formula 1 mechanic or engineer, because it’s less of a sustainable career choice than it perhaps was 10 years ago when there were 16 or 17 races.

“The chances to draw breath and spend some time with family that happened four or five times a year now only occur in August, during the shutdown, and the more we expand the calendar the more that shutdown is going to get squeezed.

“Ultimately, if we were to leave the race weekend as it is, there would really be a very limited number of people that want to do F1 as a career choice.”

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2021 F1 season