F1 not after 'gimmicks' says boss Chase Carey after talks on reverse grids with teams

Formula 1’s rulemakers will continue to hold discussions regarding how traditional race weekend formats can be revised, but they have no plans to introduce any “gimmicks” says F1 chief Chase Carey.

A proposal to replace qualifying with a reverse-grid sprint race – whereby the leader of the championship starts last – to define the starting order for Sunday’s race was discussed among team bosses, F1 and the FIA.

READ MORE: F1 confirms first 8 races of revised 2020 calendar, starting with Austria double header

The idea was to run it in the second event of a back-to-back taking place at the same venue – which this year will be at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone – to avoid the threat of the second race playing out similarly to the first.

However, the plan did not receive unanimity among teams and therefore, at present, cannot be introduced. Talks about different formats will continue going forward, but it remains unclear whether there will be any tweaks this season.

“We’ve had discussions in the past couple of years about should we look at ways to make some changes that honour the sport, respect what has made the sport great but we think would be changes that would enhance the experience for fans,” said Carey.

“We’ve talked about a couple in the coronavirus context of these two races (the Austria and Great Britain double headers). At this point we’ve had one that’s been publicised about a reverse grid that not all teams were comfortable with and making changes in this short timeframe requires unanimity of support.

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“We’re changing almost real time inside the season, but we’ll continue to look at ideas. We want to make sure they’re not gimmicks. It’s a great sport with great history, great heroes, great stars, incredibly talented drivers and other individuals so we want to respect everything to a degree but we want to make sure that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t look at ways to make some changes.

“To some degree, this season being unique gives a little bit more opportunity to try something that I don’t think we would do unless we thought it was a real possibility to add something to the race. But I think we’ll continue [talks] but it won’t be unique to this. I think we always want to be challenging ourselves and [looking at whether] there other things we can do to make the sport better.”

Read more from Chase Carey on the 2020 calendar, new regulations, commercial agreements and more in the full interview here.