The first experience of Formula 1’s latest iteration of its sprint race format posed a question: Have the series’ efforts to gradually improve the sprint race format relegated it to an irrelevance?
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said his sprint race plan had “great feedback from everyone in the sport” when he introduced it in 2021. But changing the format four times in as many years since then proved it is much less than the irresistible success F1 portrays it as.
The latest change is the second significant concession F1 has made its critics. The first came last year, when F1 abandoned the practice of using sprint races to determine the starting order for the grid, restoring the importance of traditional qualifying sessions.
This effectively decoupled sprint races from the rest of the grand prix weekend and made them extra mini-events in their own right. Now it has its own version of Formula 2 and Formula 3’s standalone sprint races, though only at certain rounds.
The second change, this year, is even more significant, as sprint races have been dropped from the second-highest billing on an F1 race weekend. Instead of occupying roughly the same time slow at the grand prix, they now take place early on Saturday.
Instead of its former high billing, for spectators the sprint race served preamble to the grand prix qualifying session later in the day. Its timing meant drivers had an extra incentive to be more cautious in the race, and especially at the start, as any damage might have prevented them qualifying well for the grand prix, where almost three times as many points are available.
There was no reason to expect the latest change would make the sprint races more exciting and there’s no indication it did. While Saturday’s sprint race wasn’t as processional as many of the dozen which preceded it, that was thanks to rain during the previous day’s qualifying session.
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The drivers greeted proceedings with their now customary shrugs. After taking pole position for the sprint race Lando Norris said he was “sad it’s not for a proper qualifying.” Verstappen felt the format change was “better, a bit more straightforward, I would say, but let’s not over-do it.”
One senior figure in the sport struck a balanced view about the benefits and drawbacks of the format change. Hekmut Marko admitted it…
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