Fernando Alonso is seemingly open to eliminating Formula 1 practice altogether and commencing the weekend with qualifying. Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Aston Martin ambassador and ex-F1 driver Pedro de la Rosa claimed that Alonso has raised the prospect on several occasions. This weekend in China, F1 will use the sprint format which features just a single qualifying outing before a duo of qualifying sessions and races. It severely reduces the amount of preparation time each team has for the weekend and creates the potential for a mixed-up grid. However, according to de la Rosa, Alonso is a fan of an even more unpredictable weekend. “Fernando, actually what he would like, is to go directly into qualifying,” he said. “He sometimes mentions it, he doesn’t need to warm up. He doesn’t need another set of tyres to go faster. It’s just ‘bang’, the first lap, that’s it and that’s the fastest he will be all weekend. “He doesn’t need to get up to speed.”
De la Rosa in favour of sprint format
F1 drivers have questioned the decision to have an F1 sprint event at the Shanghai International Circuit due to its absence from the calendar across the last five years. However, de la Rosa is keen to see how the drivers will adapt to the challenging situation. “It’s good, it’s good for the drivers to adapt,” said the one-time podium finisher. “To make sure they don’t have too much time to change the car set-ups, to learn the tricks of the track. “The sprint format always helps the best drivers to shine even more.”
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