Alex Albon has backed potential reforms to the Formula 1 grand prix weekend schedule. F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has hinted at changes to the sport's format that would see a reduction in practice time ahead of qualifying. Whilst suggesting his original comments had been blown out of proportion, the former Ferrari Team Principal told Sky Sports at the Australian Grand Prix weekend: "We have to consider that we are just at the start of an incredible period for the sport, and it's really very strong. "It's not because we don't respect the traditions, we respect the old way of thinking of our weekend, but it would be wrong not to think about it." This led to a number of drivers speaking in favour of ditching at least one of the practice sessions and restructuring the weekend format in order to positively impact worldwide travel, allowing teams to arrive later to the circuit.
Giving his thoughts when asked for a reaction to the speculation, Albon told media including RacingNews365.com : "I was interested because I've been saying kind of the same thing and I thought I was the only one under the opinion that maybe we don't need it. "Firstly looking at 23 races, travelling around the world, teams are now having to rotate personnel through and having a two-day weekend, I don't think is a bad thing. "If we could arrive on a Thursday, do the media on a Friday, that would be pretty good. I think we just need one practice session, just to get the braking cooling, engine cooling, all the reliability stuff underway, get a race run in before the race actually starts, that'd be important. "We could maybe extend that FP1 session to be a two-hour session, or something like that, give us a few sets of tyres. You can even look at it in a green sense. It's much better in terms of tyre allocation - instead of us doing all the blanket stuff, I think is a better way to do it." Suggesting less practice would play into Williams' hands, Albon added: "I'm biased, because honestly speaking, when, when you limit testing, it creates more randomness to the weekend, you have got to be better on the simulator than everyone else. "There'll be a bit more work pre-event. But if you're doing a good job at that... I often feel like we tend to have a good car actually quite early in the weekend, by FP1-FP2, we're already kind of at our happy place that suits us. "We can hopefully get into it early and then get straight to qualifying when everyone else is struggling a little bit more."
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