Ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, several team bosses have spoken out in favour of holding a rookie sprint race at the end of the season to give young drivers a chance to showcase their talents at the end of a long year.
Now, several more team bosses have publicly spoken out in support of such an event.
At an FIA press conference on Friday ahead of this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, three team principals, including Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, supported the idea. Adam Cooper, long-time F1 journalistHorner and others supported the proposal.
“Well, this is something I've suggested at the last few F1 committee meetings because I thought it would be great for young drivers,” Horner began. “And I think the problem with the rookie test is that everybody is used for testing. You don't know if you're running 50k, 70k, 30k, what the engine mode is, you have no idea. You don't know what your rivals are doing.”
“So I think it's a non-championship race for junior drivers. I think it's a great opportunity and I think it's coming at the end of a busy season and instead of just running around burning fuel and tyres and it's just the team that's running that driver who knows if they're doing a good job or not, I think it's great to give 10 drivers or 10 rookies the opportunity to jump into a current car and do the equivalent of a sprint race,” Horner continued. “And I think it's going to be a really popular event.”
The idea was supported by Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu, who will oversee young driver Oliver Bearman's driving this weekend in place of Kevin Magnussen, who is serving a one-race suspension.
“Yeah, I think it's great,” Komatsu said. “You know, in post-season testing, if you don't do that kind of thing, you just do tyre testing. So I think it adds value to the day, makes it more exciting and it's another opportunity to get young drivers in the car. These days it's very rare for a young driver to get in a current F1 car, so I think this is a really interesting move.”
Sauber team principal Alessandro Arnni Bravi agreed: “I completely agree with Ajao. It's important to give the rookies more chances to show what they can do. We know how difficult it is to get into F1, so I think the FP1 session is not enough to show what you can do. And for the team, there is a lot of risk involved in performing properly in FP1,” Arnni Bravi said. “This is a really great opportunity.”
Next season will see several new drivers on the grid, including Haas' Bearman, Alpine's Jack Doohan and Mercedes' Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and there is also the possibility of a fourth rookie on the grid, with Gabriele Bortoreto emerging as a likely candidate for a seat at Sauber alongside Nico Hulkenberg.
There's also the idea of Liam Lawson slipping into the Visa Cash App RB F1 Team seat, as it's yet to be announced who will be Yuki Tsunoda's teammate next season.
But the proposal for a new race could pave the way for some new faces in the coming years.
