LONDON • Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes Formula One has a perfect opportunity to experiment with back-to-back races in Austria next month but champions Mercedes are standing in the way.
Spielberg's Red Bull Ring is due to start the coronavirus-hit season on July 5, with a second race, also without spectators, a week later.
The International Automobile Federation (FIA) and the sport's commercial rights holders Liberty Media have proposed a reverse-grid qualifying race on the second Saturday to decide Sunday's starting order and add to the excitement. The idea would see qualifying replaced by a 30-minute, non-points scoring sprint race, with drivers starting in reverse order of their previous finishing position.
The experiment would be continued at other circuits hosting back-to-back races, with the overall points leader last on the grid.
The aim is to make the action less predictable when the same layout is used and provide more interest for broadcasters. But any change to the race weekend format has to be approved by all 10 teams. An online vote on the proposal is likely later this week.
The experiment was mooted already last year, before Covid-19 played havoc with the calendar, with Formula One keen on having three reverse-grid races in 2020. That was dropped when two teams, one of them Mercedes, voted against the idea.
The British-based team were again not supportive when it came up again at a meeting last Friday.
"I think we've got a unique situation this year, and having two races at the same venue - it would seem the perfect time to try something different at that second event," Horner told the Sky Sports F1 Show. "Otherwise, with stable weather conditions, we're likely to have the same output in race two as we have in race one.
"The only person that wasn't particularly supportive of it (the proposal) was (Mercedes boss) Toto (Wolff) because he thought it would interfere with Lewis' (Hamilton's) seventh world championship campaign, and it would be too much of a variable."
Sky quoted Mercedes as saying that "we don't believe F1 needs gimmicks to make it attractive. We believe in the sport to deliver excitement".
Four-time champion Sebastian Vettel was also not keen on the idea when it was first mooted, with the Ferrari driver describing it as "b*******".
Mercedes have won both the drivers' and constructors' titles for the past six years and another for Hamilton would equal Michael Schumacher's record.
The sport was due to introduce major changes next year aimed at making races more competitive but the bulk of those have been pushed back to 2022.
Teams have already accepted a form of handicapping for next year, with less successful outfits allowed to do more aerodynamic work.
REUTERS
