F1 sees “enthusiasm from young generation” for sprint qualifying format

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In the round-up: Formula 1 claims its new sprint qualifying format is particularly popular with younger viewers.

In brief

“Enthusiasm” from young viewers for sprint events – Domenicali

Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali is determined to press ahead with the sport’s controversial new sprint qualifying format, but admits changes are needed.

The series has run the new format twice this year and will hold a further round at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix next month. However plans to expand its use next year are already at an advanced stage.

The format has been criticised by some drivers for failing to produce the exciting contests which were promised and altering how pole position is awarded. However Domenicali said its key advantage is it reduces how much time teams have to practice, producing less predictable contests.

“From a sporting perspective, we have seen that the less time you have to practice, the more unpredictable the action is on track in qualifying and the race,” he told the official F1 website. “There is some fine-tuning we need to do but we are working through that now.”

Domenicali believes the new format is especially popular with younger viewers. “It’s always easy to be negative and not change but we push to go in this direction because we see the enthusiasm from young generation and the wider interest from those around the world.”

F1 “on the verge of becoming very big” in USA – Schumacher

Netflix Drive to Survive season three
Review: Netflix Drive to Survive season three
Formula 1 is poised to become much more popular in the USA thanks to the Netflix series Drive to Survive, says Mick Schumacher. The Haas driver, who attended the NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend, is encouraged by the sport’s growth in his team’s home country.

“It’s our home race so obviously I’m excited about that, but it’s much more than that,” said Schumacher. “I like Austin and the US.

“It’s special and it’s something where Formula 1 isn’t as big just yet but we’re on the verge of becoming very big, especially due the Drive to Survive series. I’m very much looking forward to it as it’s a great show, there’s always so much happening.”

Taffin moving to ORECA

Former Renault engine technical director Remi Taffin will join ORECA as the sport car manufacturer’s new technical director in December. Taffin, who worked with Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Ricardo Zonta and Jos Verstappen during his F1 career, will have responsibility for ORECA’s chassis and engine divisions.

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Comment of the day

DTM-style team orders are unlikely to be seen in F1, says @Eurobrun:

DTM wasn’t team orders (legal), but manufacture orders (illegal in my book, but not in DTM where its been utilised almost every year!).

If Bottas moved over for Hamilton in the late laps, you wouldn’t be surprised. Bit if Hamilton was languishing only to find Norris, Ricciardo, Vettel (yeah right), Stroll, Russell and Latifi slowed to let him past, there would be outrage.

Obviously Max could have the AlphaTauri move aside and it would be just as dubious.

The worst thing about that DTM finale was that Kelvin van der Linde’s behaviour and driving was appalling. He needs a race ban for that in my book. Was Schumacher ’97 times two!
@Eurobrun

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98 comments on “F1 sees “enthusiasm from young generation” for sprint qualifying format”

  1. Oh great Flav is back. What wonderful news for F1.

    1. The question is whether he’s going to be involved with a team level or have some sort of F1 management position. If Stefano is included in the video then one can’t but help suspect he’s involved at the management level.

      1. @drycrust Maybe he will be working with that new Alpine junior F1 team?

    2. What’s wrong with Flav? At least he has a charismatic personality which is rare these days in F1. You could argue the bigger cheat Brawn is helping run the show. Why not Flav too?

      1. Cheating is one thing, sending your second driver to crash for your first driver to gain an advantage is quite another.

        1. Banned for life for that very dangerous idea and even if he is allowed to be on the circuit he is still not welcome!

          I agree with you that was beyond cheating and very dangerous.

      2. @darryn He did questionable things. He’s one of those former F1 people who I’ve never really missed.

        1. @jerejj I would agree. Realise the old guard has great experience but surely they need to start leaving these dodgy characters behind and bring in some new blood. It certainly makes me question some of F1’s and the likes of Flavio’s motives. But maybe the new blood doesn’t exist..!

      3. János Henkelmann
        19th October 2021, 14:16

        Genuine question: how and when has Brawn cheated?

        1. Welcome to F1, new person

          Where to begin….I guess with the 1994 Benetton, and then all the Ferraris produced under his watch…it’s where we got the Ferrari International Assistance for (FIA) still in use today as somewhat tongue in cheek

          1. I’ve watched F1 since 1998…

            Do you have anything substantial or can I assume what you claim is nonsense?

      4. @darryn Brawn has also not gotten mixed up with mafia affairs or been in jail for tax fraud, whereas Briatore has – it’s one thing to push regulations within a sport, and quite another to be involved in quite serious criminal activities.

    3. Hopefully they’ll announce a dedicated sat feed for f1tv pro.

    4. When the biggest criminal in the world, MbS, gets drawn into the sport, you can’t expect the small fish not be drawn into his wake.

      They all act like enthusiastic puppies when mr. petrodollars walk in.

      Its just disheartening to see everyone forgot about Khasoggi.

  2. Enthusiasm among younger audience…. Based on what evidence?

    Or is it based on a lazy characterisation that younger people have shorter attention spans?

    Fix the aero and don’t race in god awful tracks that don’t facilitate tracks and maybe there’ll be no problem holding anybody’s attention.

    1. Don’t facilitate racing and overtaking *

      Time for bed. Zzzx

    2. Two ways I could respect the decision about sprints:
      1. They just plainly say: “It is about money. We cant call it races, them we called them sprint quali. The sponsor got interested and we pushed ahead with it.” or
      2. The publish the number:”Here, audiences, particularly in the 18-35 demo, increased by such points, and interaction in social media during and about sprints increased by such points.”
      The rest is mystification. Not only they insist in a unpopular scheme, but they try to lie saying, without proving, that there is “enthusiasm on younger fans.”
      Maybe 2022 regulations will bring something to the sprints. Now, it is just a high speed parade justified by lies and exxagerations. What just make it worse.
      By the way, I have nothing about new formats (longer/shorter races on saturday/sunday).

      1. Agree. Especially with the honesty. They are easy not to watch and now I won’t watch qualifying on Friday so I’m not wondering why the grid is different. Time saver in the end.

        1. Then you shouldn’t have watched Turkey quali either :P

      2. As a member of said younger demographic, I didn’t start watching Qualifying proper until after the sprint races started to see what I was missing. Now I watch it every weekend.

        1. So do you watch it especially because of the sprint, or is curiosity about the sprint what made you watch during more of the weekend @mr-neese; If the latter: I am sure Brawn et.al. are happy to count you in, but it is maybe not actually enthousiasm for sprint, but rather discovering (again?) there’s more to F1 than just the race then? If the former: what about it appeals to you more than weekends w/o sprint?

          1. In the weeks after the UK sprint (which I watched live out of curiosity) I read a lot of comments on how qualifying was better (which I had only ever watched in the background a few times). I then resolved to watch the next qualifying to see what the hype was – and I saw the rain-soaked Belgium session. The sprint didn’t push me to start watching qualifying so much as the internet’s reaction to it did.

    3. If you keep saying it, it will become true. A tried and tested method, no need to stop now.

      1. It seems that is about the level of actual support there is for this yeah @jaymenon10. Or who knows, maybe they now agreed with Briatore of all people to boost support?

    4. I’m not as young as I once was, but at 28 I still think I’m on the younger end of F1 viewers and a bonafide Millennial. I am not in favor of this absurd sprint qualifying concept.

    5. Enthusiasm among younger audience…. Based on what evidence?

      Exactly that. There is of course nothing to back up that claim, it’s just what they (the older people) think young people will like and that could easily be a recipe for disaster.

  3. I don’t even know who are these claims aimed at… die hard fans? casuals? investors? it hardly makes any sense for any possibility

    1. You are right. Sounds totally made up to pursue and already set agenda. And with already set I mean sponsor oney has already been accepted for these venues… there is no wayback. Money money money

  4. Guaranteed crashes each race, well done Flav.

    Re: Australia. Bring back Adelaide, its last round was the earliest race i remember.

    1. I miss adelaide too.

  5. Re the young fans liking sprint qualifying, my 15 year old son has been a fan of F1 since he was 5, and HATES the new format just as much as the rest of us.

    1. They want to appeal to new fans. As long as they attract more than they lose, then it will be a success.

      1. The telco model. Wasting acquisition funds while the back door is wide open

    2. One of my friends, who recently started watching, said 2 races are better than 1, I personally am unimpressed by sprint quali as an older fan, but the bottom line is the people who like sprint quali aren’t comparing sprints to the races, but to the session it replaces, as in a free practice.

      1. but to the session it replaces, as in a free practice.

        It replaces qualifying, which is the beauty of it. The absolute snooze-fest of the current, 99.9 % predictable qualifying format that produces 1.5 minutes of laps that actually count gets less important, which can only be an improvement.

        1. Except it does not actually replace it; we have that (which is much more interesting an hour than the dull sprint after the start of a non-race), and a dull drive where only those that had a good start (or bad one) have much incentive to try and overtake. Still, more car on track perhaps than in a free practice.

  6. Wow. I thought when Bernie “left” he took Flavio with him. Who next, Prince Andrew as patron?

    1. Together they’ll probably fly in grid girls to every race.

  7. I don’t feel like I’m particularly old, but as a 37 year old I’m guessing I’m not the “young generation” being spoken of here. But when I started watching F1 in 1992 I was 8 which means I was part of the “young generation” then so I know that there is nothing at all wrong with 2 hour long Grand Prix. When I was that age I had the luxury of time and I would watch all the free practice sessions, both qualifying sessions (which if you remember them only really started to get interesting in the last 15 minutes of the hour), the warm up (yup, that too) and the race. At no point was I asking for a sprint race because Grand Prix were too long.

    The point I’m making is that F1 was a good enough product back then to get me hooked for life. I also believe that what F1 delivers on track now is far better than what we had back then without the Sprint Race. People look back on the 90s like some golden age, and I suppose it was in a way, but the on track action wasn’t actually all that good because the gaps between the cars were so huge. People would regularly win races with only 1 or 2 other cars on the lead lap…if that happened now there would be outrage. On that basis, I see no reason for Sprint Races to exist.

    1. I’m a similar age @geemac – but I don’t feel the same way. Sprint races – as a concept – I find quite appealing. F1 needs more variety in many ways and this is just one of them. With the technical regs being so ridiculously prescriptive these days, the only thing left to improve the on-track product are the sporting regs.
      The actual current implementation of sprint races is leaving a bit to be desired – but the basic concept is fine.
      I’d prefer reverse grids to really make the competitors earn their positions on the track in competition, but clearly the big teams and the purists won’t have that.

      And while many say the sprints are failing because they aren’t exciting enough on their own, they are seemingly isolating the sprint and ignoring how it affects the following GP – both of which so far have (arguably) been much better than they would likely have been without sprints.
      While a 2 hour race can be a good length, it can also be way too much, dependent on what is happening and how the race is playing out. Sometimes those 2 hours fly by, sometimes they feel like 200 hours.

      With F1 continuing to make the cars increasingly boring, I see no harm in changing up the format to attract and hold eyeballs. All they are doing is gambling that they can attract more than they’ll lose – and for some of us, if they don’t change they’ll lose us anyway.

    2. Very good comments, especially about the 90s .
      I think that all these articles from F1 about greatness of sprint races are just plain and simple propaganda. I read recently that people are almost never personally affected by what they read when it comes to opinion. However it frequently changes what they think about what other people think. So reading that sprint races are a good idea is not going to change my mind but overtime I will start to believe that the majority of fans like sprint races and I will accept them next year without much protest. I hate that. I hate being manipulated that way. I am still to read a fan’s positive comments about sprint races, yet I am being made to think that there are plenty out there. And the more they tell me the more I believe it.

    3. F1 was a good enough product back then to get me hooked for life

      That’s exactly the problem. Too many fans were hooked for life and too little were added to that pool.
      And since some of those ‘hooked for life’ are now ‘unhooking’ (pay TV, age, married life) they need to find ways to ‘hook’ a younger generation who have way more alternatives, cannot be initially drawn in by the many accidents, and are used to shorter timespan activities.

    4. José Lopes da Silva
      19th October 2021, 12:31

      They slashed the true qualifying in 2003. It was never the same TV show again.
      But the fact is that, today, the vast majority of people agrees with the current qualifying system. It is unthinkable to return to the 1996-2002 model.
      So I don’t think the manipulation mentioned by Learon applies. I could agree and believe that 70% of the fans were manipulated to prefer the current qualifying system over the 1996-2002 one. But maybe they just changed their minds and come to enjoy it. Those fans could have gone elsewhere on Saturdays.

      1. For me the old quali system had it’s interests but was also frequently very unfair when a car/team had trouble on one of the days, and there was changeable weather. The only reason it didn’t often lead to weird poles was because the cars were seconds apart in pace anyway. And it required one to watch both Friday and Saturday, while they had enough time that the cars were on track about as much as in free practices now.

        No, the Q1-Q3 elimination is pretty good, and an improvement on the whole for me.

  8. Marinated Monolith (@)
    19th October 2021, 6:35

    “From a sporting perspective, we have seen that the less time you have to practice, the more unpredictable the action is on track in qualifying and the race,”

    Domenicali’s being ingenious here.
    He’s not saying that the Sprint Qualifying itself has been well-received, it’s the impact the Sprint Qualifying has on the overall weekend that’s been viewed positively. And he’s not entirely wrong.

    I’m not fully convinced on just how much the teams are disadvantaged by having one less practice session, but if it gives more chance for teams lower down the field to shine, then I’m cautiously onboard.

    1. Still this artificial unpredictability is meant to replace competitiveness of multiple teams and drivers medals by race results.

      I handed thought for many years that the best way to know who’s the best driver and which is the best team would be to have 20 drivers independent from the 10 teams. Reach team prepares their car as normal but with only test drivers. Then at every race drivers are allocated a car. Over the season, each driver will have driven each car once (twice for each team). That way we’ll know who is the best. What can Max do in a Merc, a Haas and an Alpine? How would Mercedes fare with Mazepin, Vettel or Norris at the wheel? I would watch these races let never before and be interested in battles at the front, middle and back!

  9. Flavio is going to head up F1’s anti-corruption unit.

    1. probably.

  10. Neil (@neilosjames)
    19th October 2021, 7:04

    Could we have a happier round-up tomorrow, @keithcollantine?

    A lead story with one of F1’s bosses continuing to make up worldwide adoration for sprints, followed by evidence that Briatore has managed to reinsert himself back into the sport, has already ruined my day and I’ve only been awake 20 minutes.

    1. @neilosjames I’ll see what I can do. Maybe we need a ‘joke of the day’…

      1. Wait! I thought Sprint Qualy was the joke of the day. Gets funnier every time Stefano or Ross re-tells it.

      2. Joke of the day sounds interesting!

  11. Are Liberty really going to allow Briatore back into F1?

    1. @johnrkh His ban ended a while back, so they can’t block him if he wants to return.

      1. They don’t have to do business with him, it would be a choice. So to all of the rabid Liberty fans, remember birds of a feather..

        1. Liberty already chose to do business with a murdering monarch, so why would a small time Italian embezzler be a problem?

        2. But they do want to do business with him. The ban was a PR thing to make it look good on the outside. He has never really left.

  12. I wonder what brand new chapter?

    Indeed a make-or-break for AusGP. Postponing is off, given the intention of holding Abu Dhabi GP before Qatar’s World Cup begins, so either April 10 as scheduled or not at all (again). I hope no stumbling blocks arise by late Jany/early Feb when the build-up process commences.

    1. ‘Jan’

    2. I’d say it’s a good possibility Australia is going to not happen… and it’ll be off for a long time. When you get in the habit of cancelling stuff, it’s hard to get out of, even when the economic reality of it starts to hit hard. We’ve literally plunged 150m into Extreme Poverty the last 18 months without breaking a sweat.

      1. It’ll go ahead this time.
        They’ve already given the green light for the Aus Open Tennis tournament in early Feb. Two more months after that = even more vaccinations and preparation time.
        And if it is cancelled again, it would be from F1’s end, not Australia’s.

        With Australia’s welfare system, the vast majority of people in extreme poverty are those who choose to be.

        1. Your welfare system relies upon a strong economy. If your economy collapses people who ‘choose not to be poor’ will have poverty thrust upon them. if you can’t do business how can you ‘choose not to be poor’. You can’t just keep bailing people out because you end up with massive inflation (which we are now seeing take off globally). Australia’s economy is not as solid as you may think it is.

          Also, my extreme poverty reference was aimed at weaker economies, but it can effect big economies like the UK, Italy etc… I can assure you in those weak economies you don’t ‘choose to be poor’.

          1. Yes, I remember last weeks reference to extreme poverty due to lack of merch sales.

            Australia’s welfare system pays out to people who demonstrate that they need it, provided they meet certain qualifications. Really, an address and a willingness to look for work (or medical certificate) is about it. Honesty is somewhat optional.
            They know very well who to give it to in order to get the best value and return from it. Certain people are more likely to rush out and spend it than others are…
            Inflation is a whole other issue altogether.
            Australia’s economy is sufficient to keep doing what it’s doing in the near future. The long term future looks pretty murky – but the near future is okay.

        2. @S What would you know of the Australian ‘welfare system’

          1. Got immediate family high up inside Centrelink’s Canberra headquarters @johnrkh. Have other family members on various pensions. I’ve also been a recipient of it myself a couple of times.
            Is that satisfactory? What do you know of it?

        3. @S You mean the DSS part of Services Australia yes? We only call the street front offices ‘CentreLink” .

          1. Yes, I’m aware of that. But I don’t speak bureaucrat, so as a normal person, it’s all Centrelink as far as I’m concerned.
            If you mean ‘we’ as though you work there – my condolences. At least you can enjoy your fat paycheck, I guess, and the fact that you never have to see the faces of the people whose lives are dependent on the system, and often made harder by it.

          2. @S I am a PS but I neither work for or engage with employees or contractors from Services Australia.

            I guess, and the fact that you never have to see the faces of the people whose lives are dependent on the system, and often made harder by it.

            Yes I have, all I had to do was look at my parents.
            The deterioration of the PS and the undermining of the Social Security System and other services are both directly linked to the ‘choice’ of governments at the federal level at two key times, 1975 and 1996.

          3. I also spent 20 years or so in public service @johnrkh.
            The system isn’t broken because of just two choices – it’s every day choices by every single government and department head along the way, including the current mob.
            Neither side is better or worse than the other.

          4. @S Defeatist!

  13. Sprint racing is a ‘must watch’ even if you don’t like it because there is added peril to qualifying due to increased accident risk. At the end of the day, if more people watch it than qualifying we’ll get more of it. It’ll be reverse grids next and that kind of thing.

    The ‘youth’ thing is a bit of a red-herring to hide the fact it’s just pure numbers. Veganism is a ‘youth’ movement, but the actual reality is the decline in meat consumption is actually mainly driven by older people eating less of it. The ‘youth’ thing is a bit of a marketing exercise.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      19th October 2021, 9:33

      It’s not so much watching the sprint instead of qualifying as they still have both – it’s watching qualifying on Friday when you wouldn’t have watched FP2 instead.

      They can get much higher viewing figures on Friday afternoon than they would have with the old format and then similar figures on Saturday.

      That means they have 3 sessions that are “must watch” instead of two so really, whilst they pretend it’s about youngsters and new fans, they’re actually benefitting most from the diehard fans who watch every week. I don’t like the sprint but missing it means missing a key part of the weekend.

      1. Motorsport Broadcasting reported that Silverstone drew higher Saturday figures as well, though I do take your point that we also see much higher Friday figures, I’d forgotten about that.

        And I agree they are benefiting from die-hard fans. The ‘youth’ thing is really a veil.

        It’ll be interesting to see how it goes. I recall a study on Pepsi vs Coke demonstrated that people prefer Pepsi on the initial sip, but over a long drinking period people prefer Coke. I think it had something to do with the sickly sweetness you get with Pepsi is favoured on first sip, but over time people tend to not like it over a Coke which is a better drink over time… if that makes sense?

        The point is that there can be a bias within a survey toward the initial reaction to something, but over time people’s preference can change and it’ll be interesting to see whether this is replicated within F1. Though with the way F1 is improving its marketing effort any effect could be masked by other things like increased viewership via Netflix etc…

        1. Motorsport Broadcasting reported that Silverstone drew higher Saturday figures as well

          For Silverstone in some regions it did (Marginally), However it also saw a decrease in some regions & overall the format didn’t really move the needle in terms of ratings. And the Friday qualifying session also drew a lower rating than the qualifying session typically does when on Saturday.

          I was also told that ratings & overall engagement for both qualifying on Friday & the sprint on Saturday were lower for Italy than they had been for Britain with qualifying on Friday drawing a substantially lower figure than usual.

          1. Fair points, will take on board and adjust accordingly.

      2. @petebaldwin

        it’s watching qualifying on Friday

        Or in my case (And I expect many others) no longer been able to watch qualifying because it’s on a Friday.

        And in terms of the gimmick race I won’t be watching that going forward either as I can’t stand it or the format that has taken live qualifying away from me so i’m just a lost viewer of both for them.

        #LibertyOut! #NoToGimmickSprints! #RealQualifyingShouldBeOnSaturday!!!!!!

        1. How about #DomenicaliOut! and #TotoWolffIn! for your list of hashtags. If Toto Wolff had Domenicali’s job we would probably not have sprint races and there would be no fear of further gimmicks like reversed grids, and he’s the only person like that I can think of who could be a contender for the job.

        2. +1 from me for that @roger-ayles

          I’d have watched Friday qualifying if they hadn’t messed with them schedule so I miss that and I definitely won’t watch the sprint abomination ever again so I’m watching less.

          In fact I’ve gotten so sick of Sky, and the Liberty mouthpieces “talking it up” a long with them rabbiting on about AWS I’ve dropped off all practice sessions and only watch “proper” qualifying and the races for the remainder of this season. I might even give the last few a complete miss I’ve become so disillusioned.

          Given they’re chucking in 6 abomination events next year and a pile of triple headers, the decisions on what to miss will actually be pretty easy.

          Vote with your eyeballs people, it’s the only thing that might make a difference.

        3. Or in my case (And I expect many others) no longer been able to watch qualifying because it’s on a Friday.

          I will likely be in that boat next year @roger-ayles.

          I haven’t missed a live qualifying session which I had access to since 1996 & the only sessions I didn’t watch live prior to that were the Friday sessions as I was at school.

          And I know we have things like DVR & Catch-Up now so we can watch the stuff we can’t watch live but I loathe doing that as watching live sport delayed never has the same level of tension or excitement for me so I never enjoy it as much as when i’m watching live. Additionally during the live broadcast Sky has various addition video feeds (OnBoards, Pit lane, Timing, Tracking & Multi-Screens) which I like to have on a 2nd screen (As well as switching between on the TV red button) which aren’t available after the fact & that again plays in to me not quite enjoying it as much (I always have the OnBoard-Mix up on a 2nd screen, Have done since 2006).

          And in terms of the gimmick race I won’t be watching that going forward either

          Vote with your eyeballs people

          @dbradock Exactly what I plan to do going forward.

          The Brazil sprint race will therefore technically be the first F1 race I don’t watch live since Adelaide 1994 (I was 11 & my parents wouldn’t let me stay up or get up that early) & the first F1 race I don’t watch at all since I became a fan in 1989.

          With 23 races next year + 6 sprints the days of me following every weekend & watching every race are coming to a reluctant end unfortunately. And as I said not too long ago I can honestly see this been the starting point of my disengagement from F1, I still honestly love the sport & I really don’t want to disengage from it but I just don’t like the direction Liberty are taking it in & my dislikes are starting to heavily outweigh the likes. And believe me it really hurts me & almost makes me want to cry to even think that as F1 has been my biggest passion since I first came across it as a 5 year old kid in 1989.

          1. the first F1 race I don’t watch live since Adelaide 1994

            @stefmeister How have you managed to watch every race since Adelaide 1994 live? Surely there have been some where you had something else to do at the time and had to record them for later (particularly as a child when your parents are in control of your life!). But the sprint race is a qualifying session, so you don’t have to worry about losing that impressive stat yet!

          2. Surely there have been some where you had something else to do at the time and had to record them

            @f1frog Nope, Not missed a single one. I’ve always prioritized F1 & have sat through every lap of every race (Including the 2005 USGP) since the start of 1995.

            The closest I ever came to missing one was the 2001 French Gp where i’d been out with a friend in the morning & due to been held up by traffic barely got back in time. Switched the TV literally as the 5 lights were coming on.

            I guess i’ve been lucky all these years to not have to work or anything on weekends & having friends/family that get that i’m a bit crazy & have been willing to put up with me organising everything around F1 all these years.

            When I was younger my parents used to stop me staying up late or getting up early for the flyaways & there were times when I was dragged out for family trips, But by 1995 my mom was comfortable leaving me home alone which allowed me to avoid the family trips & as long as I wasn’t staying up or getting up super early on a school day she was fine letting me do that. Although by the end of 1996 she was also fine with that which allowed me to stay up Sunday nights to watch the WWE PPV’s which were on until 3/4am.

          3. Also to add actually, In 1995 I even had a cable TV box in my room allowing me to watch Eurosport’s coverage which until then i’d had to watch downstairs in the living room which annoyed everyone since nobody else in the house was a fan (Still the same now).

        4. Qualifying should set the race grid and NOT Sprint Qualifying!

        5. And also please send us your Angriest Rant Of All Time: Part 2!

    2. I’d argue there’s far more ‘peril’ in regular qualifying seeing as each flying lap has to be on the absolute limit (with the high possibility a good lap may be wasted from either going off track or someone ahead of you crashing/stopping) where as in sprint qualifying you have 1 instance where there’s a slightly higher risk of peril (ie the start) before things peter out.

  14. Domenicali said its key advantage is it reduces how much time teams have to practice, producing less predictable contests.

    In what way has the reduced practice time at either of the sprint weekends so far really made things less predictable?

    If anything the addition of the sprint race has actually taken away many of the unknowns we used to have going into the GP.

    Even the loss of an hour of practice on Friday hasn’t really had much of an effect because teams have (As expected) simply adapted & maximised the time they now have to get all the data they need.

  15. Since sprint races seem to be inevitable next year, and – as others mentioned above – Liberty will push this “sprint races attract young people to watch” b.s., and since Liberty said they’ll probably make the sprint races kinda separate to rest of the traditional weekend (qualifying and race)… then why don’t they just put the sprint races on Friday afternoon and bring back quali on Saturday…?

    Then there would be a straight comparison between FP2 and sprint races, regarding the viewership and traditionalists could ignore it and watch the normal quali+race weekend as always. Also, if they don’t enforce park ferme after the sprint race, then the Saturday FP can have some value, as teams will better fine-tune the cars after the sprint race randomness.

    My proposal would go even further… award full points on Sprint races (25-18-15…), but only for the Constructors championship. None towards the Drivers’ one. That way the WDC (that we all care) remains unaffected and the WCC (which is more complex) becomes a bit more intresting than now (because, honestly this year and every year, everyone mostly cares for the WDC and they’re mildly intrested in the WCC). Heck, they can also make mandatory every team to have at least one younger driver for one of the two cars and test them in real race conditions.

  16. Thank you for killing roots of F1!

  17. Well ofcourse the sprintraces will have created some enthusiasm. F1 has doubled the most exciting part of a race weekend, the start.

    Artificial excitement, because the technical and financial regulations F1 have kept on failing.
    If this is the road they want to take, then Bernie’s idea of putting on sprinklers at some point during the race is far more exciting.
    Or introduce a safety car after an x amount of laps to recreate more of those start moments.

    The pretense and lies around all of this is the most sickening.

  18. isthatglock21
    19th October 2021, 11:23

    this is truly one of the biggest lies across all sports in this modern era, constant bs re how they’re statisfying young audiences & wacky ‘assumptions’ with what they ‘like & want’, same goes for super league concept which they claimed was cause young people are dumb with no attention spam. All evidence I’ve seen on socials suggests otherwise tbh, F1 is just blind as a bat….but that was always the plan I guess

  19. I think Domenicali is wrong about less practice meaning more unpredictability. I suggested the same thing last year in regards to the single practice session at the Nurburgring and Imola, and someone correctly pointed out to me that less practice just means that the teams who have better simulators (more money) have an advantage, so the bigger teams come out on top again. And with the sprint weekend they arguably have better practice as they get to do a mini-race in the same conditions as all the other cars before the actual Grand Prix (no full setup changes, obviously, but it helps understand the tyres more for strategy, the pace relative to other cars in race conditions, and small setup changes).

  20. Sergey Martyn
    19th October 2021, 16:49

    Please re-watch ‘The Truman Show’ finale.
    So-called ‘young generation’ will immediately dump F1 stupid tricks like sprint qualifying etc. (+whatever gimmicks Liberty Media will try to push down our throats) right after they’ll find some tik-tok videos with dancing monkeys or cute kittens.

    1. Opinion on Bayern Munich?

    2. Oh so you won’t say anything about Bayern Munich? No opinion on them? They have a partnership with TikTok so you don’t wanna say “Bayern München raus aus TikTok”?

  21. Share the numbers or zip it, pal. The days of anyone believing corporate palaver and chest beating are way over. Way.

  22. There is so much doublespeak, contradictions and corporate mumbo jumbo in Domenicali’s words I don’t even know where to start.

    1- First of all, poll after poll has shown that quail race is not popular, so where is this secret data that supersedes that?

    2- If quali race is to reduce time for practice, all you need to do is stop friday practice day. end of story.

    3- if quali format is soooo popular with this mysterious sub-sect of the population, why need to alter it?

    1. It’s all about the narrative and spin nowadays since there will be no contradiction in the media

  23. some racing fan
    20th October 2021, 2:48

    Briatore is a criminal who has no business anywhere near F1. Sure, he was a good talent spotter and was actually pretty good at management (that was until Crashgate)- but he has had his time in F1, and he should stay the hell away.

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