Extra Practice?

Have they stopped adding on an extra practice on Thursdays for new tracks? I remember in Argentina in 1995 and Melbourne in 1996 there was the extra practice because it was a new circuits for modern Formula 1 cars (have to word that carefully because Beunos Aires did have F1 races in the past on the longer circuit). I'm assuming they won't do this for Valencia though? Can't remember what they did for Sepang in 1999 and Indianapolis in 2000. I don't think they did the extrapractice for the A1 Ring in 1997 when that returned...though I remember some drivers going to test there first a few weeks before the race

I also remember an extra Sunday morning practice in the 96 Monaco Grand Prix...but that was for the changing weather...though they don't seem to do that anymore.

Maybe a sign of how less flexible F1 is these days...everything worked out the last second.

In all honest with all the gadgets and stuff they have at the factorys they could probably create their own Valencia bump for bump before driving a lap on it. But yeah im pretty sure they have stopped doing it.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Can't remember the last time they did it, but I seem to remember it wasn't all that long ago. Perhaps Melbourne in '96 or so? It's certainly been done in the '90s though.

The plan was for there to be a practice session on Thursday night at Singapore to get the drivers used to the lights, but they decided it was not needed.

I can remember when the GP moved to China for the first time - the drivers had already driven the lap on a simulator and it was so accurate that drivers were able to go out and on their very first lap, set a tiem that was within 5 seconds of the eventual pole time.

Amazing.

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Its weird that Qualy is actually an hour later than the race start.

I think its good they dont have the extra session, it is up to the drivers to learn the track as quick as possible

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2013 - Nando must come through..

They should have a longer P1 from 1.5 to 2.5 hours.

Its the same for them all so it makes no difference.

But if anyone has a car problem in 1st practice that will really mess up their weekend.

yes, a crash or problem on friday will be really bad for anyone

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X (@ed24f1)

i think people are taking this like a bigger matter than it really is. The drivers will know this track well enough within 6-7laps.

The track has not really got anything different about it in terms of layout to many other tracks, a basic setup will be easy enough to find. The only thing the cars will really be out for is for tyre testing and optimising setup like any other race weekend. But it hasnt got anything specifically to make it stand out, ie Indy's banking, Turkey t8, corners where if you do miss a fp session could possibly mean a tyre blow-out during the race or something.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

true, but even at tracks that we visit every year, missing fridays can be quite influential on the weekend (especially in the midfield), so i dont see why it would be any different in valencia

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X (@ed24f1)

All practice is good practice, so of course it will make an effect on someone who misses it. Maybe it won't make a massive difference, but you should see a slight lack of pace for whatever they missed in the practice session.

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