F1 Regulation changes approved

[Otto Puzzell]

The FIA confirmed on July 13th that the recent proposed changes to the Sporting Regulations from the Formula One Commission have been approved by the World Motor Sport Council. The changes that affect the 2006 championship will come into force at this weekend's French Grand Prix.

The noticeable one will be the change to qualifying: the last 20 minute session will be cut by five minutes. Despite the general approval of the new qualifying format, the final session has never been popular as drivers spend most of the time burning off a heavy load of race fuel.

Other changes ratified include a clarification of the safety car rules where time penalties are concerned. Previously it was possible for a driver to serve such a penalty under a safety car phase but now the punishment will have to take place outside those periods.

For next year the scrapping of third cars in Friday practice sessions has been approved of, which raises some questions about what exactly fans can expect on a Friday at race weekends. Currently there's very little track action outside of third drivers on a Friday.

While racers sit and conserve their engines, the team No.3s have become familiar on a Friday morning but without them surely there has to be some kind of alternative? If not, Fridays will pretty much become pointless as far as ticket-payers are concerned.

Speculation suggests that the F1 weekend schedule is going to have a revamp and see Friday as a free test day, in turn for cutting in-season testing. This idea has been advocated by some teams for a long time but we'll just have to wait and see if it happens.