Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali sees no reason not to add more sprint rounds to the calendar in future seasons.
Six of the 24 rounds on the 2024 F1 calendar are sprint events. The first took place last weekend in China and the next round in Miami will also feature a sprint race.
Formula 1 and the FIA have increased the number of sprint rounds from three per season when the format was introduced in 2021, to six from last year. But Domenicali believes the number of sprint rounds the sport holds in a season could be increased.
Asked by Sky whether if he was considering proposing more sprint races on the calendar, Domenicali replied: “Why not?”
“I would say this is great,” he continued, “because it keeps the tension on every day. And this is something that we will discuss in the future. Now, let’s see how this year with the sprints in the way that we have decided this year will go – but that’s a point of discussion.”
Domenicali said the sprint race qualifying session on Friday in Shanghai, which was affected by rain and saw neither Red Bull driver qualify on the front row of the grid, as evidence why sprint rounds provide greater entertainment than a conventional race weekend.
“For sprint qualifying in incredible conditions, we had a lot of runs,” he said. “And that reminds us that we have a duty to make sure that every day there is some action on the track, to respect the fans that are coming here because they want to have fun.”
He is keen to avoid a repeat of the situation seen at the previous round in Japan, where rain fell in second practice and teams covered few laps in order to save sets of their intermediate tyres. Domenicali wants to ensure the sport “avoids any possibility” of a recurrence.
“This is not good for the people that are coming to see us, to see the drivers,” he said. “And I’m sure that the teams will understand. So we need to find solutions.”
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