Silverstone managing director Richard Phillips has called on the FIA to revise the rules when it comes to wet practice sessions in Formula One.
Phillips was again left staring at frustrated fans in the grandstands looking out over a wet track with no cars on show for 75 minutes of the 90 of FP1 yesterday as rain poured.
It was not until the closing 10 minutes in particular that matters livened up, but even then only 11 drivers set a time.
It is not the first occasion teams have decided to stay in the dry while fans who have paid good money to watch their heroes get drenched.
An annoyed Phillips, speaking to Press Association Sport, said: “I think it is about time there was a rule change to be honest.
“The teams need to put some cars on the track. For the people that come to see them it’s short-sighted if they don’t put cars out there.
“They are the guys the advertisers are interested in, who the TV are interested in. It’s about people and if you can’t entertain the people then what is it all about.
“I would very much hope the FIA will take on board what has happened this year with practice and ensure cars go out in the future.
“I can understand why they don’t do it because it’s a very difficult balance to get right.
“But we mustn’t lose sight of the fact this is actually a leisure pursuit in a way, about people coming out to have a good time, who are spending their hard-earned money, so they should be entertained.”
Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn can appreciate Phillips’ issues, but believes he also has to understand the circumstances.
“The difficulty is there’s a fairly high risk in those conditions and if there’s nothing to be gained, the teams tend to be conservative,” said Brawn.
“If we think the race is going to be wet, we think qualifying is going to be wet, then we run.
“If we don’t - and that’s the forecast we have this weekend - then the objective is not as strong to run in those conditions.
“It does make it very difficult, but we have to acknowledge it’s not the greatest show when that happens.”
According to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, the safety of the drivers also has to be taken into consideration.
Horner said: “It was a great shame for the fans all the cars were sitting in the garage and they were sitting in the grandstands getting wet.
“From a team perspective, we want to be out there because you want to learn, but unfortunately you can’t fully predict the British summer.
“It was a bit marginal, actually. We sent Sebastian (Vettel) out early on to have a look and he said it was right on the edge in terms of aquaplaning.
“With the limitation on parts and so on, we had to make a decision to say ‘okay, we need to wait a bit later until the circuit conditions improve’.
“It’s not great, but what the answer is I don’t know.”