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F1 supremos driving a hard bargain
LONDON, England -- Formula One chiefs have agreed to revamp the 2004 grand prix timetable by limiting qualifying to one expanded Saturday session. Minardi supremo Paul Stoddart told Reuters after a meeting of the International Automobile Federation's (FIA) F1 Commission on Friday that he was disappointed. "From the smaller teams' point of view, there's nothing in it for us," he said. Stoddart said the commission, which includes the 10 team chiefs, had agreed to scrap Friday qualifying in exchange for allowing the bottom six teams to run a third car in free practice that day. The decisions must still be ratified by the governing body's World Motor Sport Council later this month. Friday free practice would be from 1100 to 1200 and from 1400 to 1500 local time, filling the space used by first qualifying this year. Saturday's qualifying would be expanded to run from 1400 to 1530, with morning free practice as usual, and each driver having two timed laps instead of just one at present. Stoddart said the starting order would be determined by the result of the previous race, rather than championship positions as happens now. The driver with the slowest initial lap would then be first out for the decisive qualifying lap -- a move the Minardi supremo claims would penalise the smaller teams. He feared that a driver like Ferrari's world champion Michael Schumacher could start first and set the fastest time -- giving him up to an hour and a half to tune his car for the second run while others had quicker turnarounds. Stoddart said testing will be limited to 48 days per team during the season, which runs from March to October, with no limitations out of season. Rules covering engines are also due to change next year with teams limited to one engine per car for the weekend, which will be deemed to have started with Friday's first practice. In theory, that means an engine may have to last up to 700 km. F1 changed the qualifying format this year to two sessions, the first on Friday and the second on Saturday, to shake up the sport after television audiences began to suffer from a year of Ferrari domination. Previously, there was one hour-long session on Saturday, with drivers able to complete four flying laps at a time of their choosing.
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