Is there a ‘sprint’ format which can satisfy both the purists and the bean-counters? · RaceFans

Like it or loathe it, Formula 1’s sprint race format isn’t going anywhere.

This weekend’s sprint round will be the sixth since they were introduced last year – and the 2023 F1 calendar will feature six more.

The sprint format was introduced as a three-round trial in 2021 after several unsuccessful attempts to win support for the idea. At sprint rounds the usual qualifying session is held a day early, on Friday, which decides the starting order for a points-paying, 100-kilometre sprint race on Saturday, which in turn sets the grid for the grand prix.

F1 desperately tried to proclaim last year’s trial was wildly successful despite their own research indicating otherwise. An official survey of 167,000 fans found only a small majority considered the format an improvement over the usual arrangement, and other ideas such as permitting multiple tyre suppliers were far more popular.

For F1, the sprint format is attractive because it increases the attention of viewers over a race weekend. In effect, it exchanges one practice session for a race, which inevitably creates more interest. From that point of view, its appeal is obvious: a larger audience ultimately means more income.

But F1 has not been able to solve the knock-on problems its sprint format created which have irked so many fans. Not least the fact that using a race instead of a qualifying session to decide pole position for a grand prix ended a tradition which began at the first ever round of the world championship in 1950.

Trying to get around that, F1 has this year claimed that the official pole position at sprint events is won on Friday in the regular qualifying session. But the possibility remains that a sprint race could produce a result that means a different driver starts from the front for the grand prix. As both of this year’s sprint races have been won from pole the absurdity of this arrangement hasn’t been put to the test, though it is surely only a matter of time.

Then there’s the lingering possibility that the points dished out in Saturday’s sprint race could decide the winner of a championship. Once that happens, F1’s insistence that its short races do not detract from the importance and prestige of a grand prix will be shattered.

It’s also been noted that the sprint format is unsuitable for use at some tracks where overtaking is extremely difficult, notably Monaco. No wonder some…