The experiment having failed, this weekend sees the race weekend return to a 4-day format.

With an eye on the expansion of the calendar and the logistics this would entail, this year has seen F1's powers-that-be reduce the race weekend format to just three days.

The official FIA press conference has been held on Friday morning, ahead of opening practice, while the team representative's press conference has taken place on Saturday ahead of FP3.

However, as the paddock opens up again post-COVID, the media's demands for meetings directly with drivers and team bosses has led to Thursday, which was essentially supposed to be a 'free' day, actually being even busier than before.

Furthermore, the demands of the Friday press conference, attended by all twenty drivers, has impacted on the teams' preparations for the sessions that follow.

"I think it's more about how we're doing like the press conferences and the media activities," complained Max Verstappen at Imola. "I think it was better before because now Thursday is very long, which officially is not really a day any more but actually for us it's the same amount, or even more.

"And even more now on a Friday, where you come in early," he added. "I mean, coming in early is not a problem, but your whole day is longer.

"So going to more races, you would like to have a shorter weekend, but actually now, with more races we're also having longer weekends, or at least more days that we are actually at the track and doing stuff. That definitely needs to change."

As a result, from this weekend at Silverstone, the official FIA press conference will take place on Thursday with just 10 drivers taking part, while the remaining 10 have to take part in media sessions arranged by their respective teams.

The team representatives press conference will continue to be held on Saturday morning.

With four races in July, it is likely that under the previous format with all 20 drivers present for the Friday press conference, the media would have run out of questions - and the drivers answers - by the third race.