Hmm this will affect weekend ticket sales...if what they are saying will happen on Friday practice days.... Looks like it will be one of those occassions where it pays off NOT to be one of the top teams -
from ITV/F1/com
Race fans attending Friday's free practice in Bahrain are likely to be frustrated by a lack of action as their heroes are restricted to no more than three flying laps through the two, hour-long, sessions.
Thanks to large-scale changes to the qualifying changes, as well as new tyre restrictions, most of the top drivers are not expected to spend much time on-track at all during Friday.
Some drivers have expressed their disappointment at the situation, which will see most unemployed for much of the day.
"I've come all this way and I'm going to drive for ten minutes tomorrow," said Williams driver Mark Webber.
"I quite like driving and it would be nice if I could do a bit more."
Renault confirmed that Fernando Alonso was likely to complete only 10 laps in total for the whole day.
The exceptions to this will be the Friday testers.
Honda's Anthony Davidson and Williams's Alex Wurz, who will be able to run through programmes unfettered by tyre limits and engine reliability concerns, could run more than 60 laps as they bare the brunt of their team's set-up work.
The scenario has come about because of the change in regulations over the winter.
Qualifying for the top runners is now estimated to cover a distance of 130km thanks to the new three-session format, while the old single-lap sessions only used up 15km.
Formula 1 engines are lifed to 550km, and as one top engineer explained to ITV-F1.com, the difference in distance has had to come from Friday's practice sessions
Cant help but wonder how long this will have to be changed.....top teams complaining when a 'lesser' team starts to do well .....claims of not being allowed to get track evaluations will soon happen I fear