Formula 1 "could re-introduce a non-championship race to experiment with new formats and ideas if such an event can be made commercially viable," Managing Dir Ross Brawn suggested, according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS. Brawn: "It might be rather optimistic. But you can imagine if we had a non-championship race there'd be a lot more capacity to look at different formats and approaches and see if the fans take to it with much less risk or exposure than we would if we were doing something in the championship." The last non-championship race was held at Brands Hatch in '83. Brawn said, "We often had non-championship races in the old days but getting it all to work is another matter." He also said that '17 rule changes with faster and wider cars and fatter tires could "unwittingly benefit his former Mercedes team, the dominant world champions for the past three years." Brawn: "We expose ourselves whenever we make changes like this. Fingers crossed, it is going to work out but l think it is a good example of where we didn't go through the right principles to begin with" (REUTERS, 3/1). SKY SPORTS' Pete Gill reported Brawn has been presented with a "blank canvas on which to project F1's future direction and an in-tray overflowing with the day-to-day minutia" of the world's "most complex sport." He said, "There is quite a lot of inertia in F1 so it's going to be difficult to get it absolutely right but l think we can get a lot closer. It won't be perfect because F1 is a bit of an oil tanker so you nudge it but l hope we can get it going in the right direction" (SKY SPORTS, 3/1).
