Rediff

Singapore, Oct 1: Formula One drivers could compete for a $1 million Friday jackpot as part of a revamp of grand prix weekends, McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh has suggested.

"We (the teams) are looking at the whole format of a race weekend," the Briton told the autosport.com website after Sunday's first night-time race in Singapore.

"At the moment we have formulated a Friday testing format, but in reality no one is doing the normal disciplined testing. We are preparing for the race (instead).

"So we say, 'Is this good value? Does it help the show?'.

"Or do you perhaps do something where you say 'Let's cut it down to 45 minutes only'. Maybe you give a completely different specification of tyres, a really hard tyre, and you create a mini-competition where everyone tries to set the fastest time and you give a million dollars to the winning driver?'

"It means there would be something to write about and it introduces the weekend. It is separate from the race. So there are all those sort of ideas about."

Whitmarsh heads the sporting working group of the newly-created Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) which is working with the governing FIA and commercial rights holders to finds ways of improving the spectacle, cutting costs and increasing revenues.

He said he hoped the working group would reach some conclusions during the next two races in Japan [Images] and China before submitting recommendations to FOTA and then the FIA.