Formula 1 teams have discussed further changes to the series’ sprint race format for the 2024 season.
Sprint races were introduced in 2021 and the format has been altered every year since then. For the 2024 F1 season teams are looking to address some of the shortcomings arising from the move to ‘standalone’ sprint races this year.One problem which has been identified with the current format, used at six rounds this year, is it forces qualifying for the grand prix to be rescheduled from its usual Saturday slot to Friday. F1 is looking into holding the sprint race qualifying session on Friday instead, which would allow the sprint race to take place early on Saturday before grand prix qualifying later in the day.
The change was discussed at a meeting of Formula 1’s Sporting Advisory Committee meeting this week. “There’s been discussions about how to improve, how we go about the sprint event,” said Aston Martin’s performance director Tom McCullough.
“The sprint event was brought in for a reason: the fans. From a technical point of view, it’s a headache. The car goes into parc ferme after one practice session and it is difficult.
“But from a commercial side and from a fan side, I think there are elements that are exciting. It needs tweaking. It’s been tweaked already, I think it needs tweaking a bit more.
“Even my dad, who’s quite an ‘understander’ and follower of Formula 1 sometimes says to me ‘just remind me is it qualifying on Friday for the main race?’ I think if somebody at that level is having questions, the fans are going to get confused.
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“So our job is to put a simpler, better, more understandable format, still have the excitement of two races.”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said keeping the grand prix qualifying session in its usual time would “create less confusion” between conventional race weekends and sprint events. He also suggested F1 simplify its terminology by dropping the “sprint shootout” name for the sprint race qualifying session, and use the same format and tyre allocation for it and the grand prix.
“I mean, I’m getting confused,” Wolff told Sky. “I don’t know which section is the next one – I think it’s qualifying for the grand prix, isn’t it?”
However moving the sprint race to the morning before qualifying for the grand prix creates new challenges which need to be solved, said Ferrari’s sporting director Diego Ioverno.
“If we move the sprint race on Saturday morning, then you have to make sure that you allow enough gap to teams to react before quali in case of problems and stuff like that,” he said.
“There are also other options on the table. But we will work all together because at the end this is our target to make it as good as possible for our fans.”
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Josh (@canadianjosh)
3rd November 2023, 17:43
I still don’t quite understand this either, I truly enjoy the normal weekends a lot more than the sprint ones.
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd November 2023, 19:23
Yeah, although I do think it makes more logical sense to qualify for the sprint on friday, then race it and have the qualifying for Sunday on Saturday afternoon before the race on Sunday than to have it jumbled up like we get now.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
4th November 2023, 0:31
Yes – finish each day with a cliffhanger, then pick it up the next day in the race. We won’t forget who’s where on the grid by the start of the GP, and there’s more chance of continuity in track and weather conditions.
Friday qualifying’s fun, but would suit sprint qualifying better. Maybe it shouldn’t be a knockout so newcomers and teams baffled by their cars have more time to prepare. A load of people can’t watch on Fridays and would prefer the important pole and grid-setting quali to be the last session before the Grand Prix.
Zann (@zann)
3rd November 2023, 17:44
the idea was to make more money from Fridays, presumably
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd November 2023, 19:23
Off course, yeah.
Zann (@zann)
3rd November 2023, 19:35
so, they won’t want to move Qualifying back to Saturday, if they can help it
Gusm.ai
4th November 2023, 17:11
I think that is definition of disingenuous the statement that the sprints were there for the fans.
Edvaldo
3rd November 2023, 17:49
for starters qualifying on friday is a terrible idea, absolutely terrible. Most people can’t watch because they’re working/studying/whatever, but the qualifying for the much less important Sprint race is on saturday.
So if at least this can be corrected, would be a good start.
I’d prefer if they drop Sprint altogether, but they won’t do that.
Gusm.ai
4th November 2023, 17:20
The worst part is the mess on the regular TV program.
Usually qualy is about the same time of the race.
With sprints, not only quali goes to Friday, but on odd times.
lebkin
3rd November 2023, 18:15
My thought would be to set the Sprint on Friday afternoon without any qualifying. Maybe use the qualifying of the race before to set the order? Give the fans something on Friday while leaving Saturday qualifying alone. Here’s how I’d see the weekend:
Friday: Free Practice 1, Sprint
Saturday: Free Practice 2, Race Qualifying
Sunday: Grand Prix
sumedh
3rd November 2023, 18:22
Here is an idea. Sprints should only be a Friday race in place of the usual FP-2. No parc ferme until normal qualifying on Saturday qualifying (so the Saturday morning free practice still has meaning).
Now, here’s the crazy part.
The starting order of the Friday race to be reverse of the existing championship order. Let the race be the normal grand prix length. At the end of this ‘race’, let the first place finisher get 20 ‘sprint points’, 2nd place gets 19, 3rd place gets 18 and so on till 20th place who gets 1 point. After all the sprint races of the entire championship are done, arrange drivers in descending order of ‘sprint points’ earned, let the first place driver get 25 F1 championship points, second place get 18 points, third place get 15 points until the 10th place driver get 1 point.
This way, the entire impact of the sprint calendar is limited to just 1 real ‘race’. The sprint doesn’t affect the normal race weekend timings. Any incident in the sprint doesn’t affect the rest of the weekend as parc ferme is not in place and there is full Friday evening to repair if necessary. There are more points available towards the end of the season (where the last sprint is run) which can make the championship (if close) more exciting. The lower ranked teams have something to fight for as they have a good chance of salvaging a good haul of ‘sprint points’ due to reverse grid nature of it.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
3rd November 2023, 18:48
Look it’s easy to be negative but at the end of the day it shouldn’t be this difficult.
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
3rd November 2023, 19:16
They could just bin it off – even bernie realised when a odea wasn’t working.
dot_com (@dot_com)
3rd November 2023, 21:30
Unfortunately I don’t think there’s any way back now.
SteveP
3rd November 2023, 19:27
Extremely simple solution:
Put aspiring F1 drivers in last year’s car and have them qualify and race on a Friday, run the GP qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday.
Result 1 – happier F1 drivers (removing a format they don’t like)
Result 2 – happier aspiring F1 drivers (giving them F1 car experience in a race format)
Of course, since it rains on Domenicali’s parade, it’s an idea that would be buried in the deepest mine on earth.
Imre (@f1mre)
3rd November 2023, 19:40
There is a series for aspiring F1 drivers. It’s called F2. Why should we create another?
Also, racing last year’s cars would be a logistical nightmare and would cost a load of money.
It’s a bad and “extremely” complicated idea.
drmouse (@drmouse)
3rd November 2023, 21:49
They want more people to watch on Friday, and buy tickets for Friday. There are already competitive sessions from support series etc on Friday, but they don’t draw in the crowds, and I doubt this idea would do any better. It just doesn’t fulfill the criteria they are looking for.
Velocityboy (@velocityboy)
3rd November 2023, 19:57
I’d rather see them try for the fastest lap in a reasonably priced car. The top three win buckets of money that they can give to local charities.
Michael
3rd November 2023, 20:19
My solution would be no sprint race qualifying.
Invert the championship order to set the grid.
Minimum of 1 pitstop.
Teams cannot pit both drivers on the same lap (unless conditions change)
drmouse (@drmouse)
3rd November 2023, 22:03
I’d do something similar, but I’d ban pit stops. Straight race to the line, if you have to pit, you retire. If you misjudge the tyres, you’re stuck with them to the end*. Run it on Friday in place of FP, run FP2 on Saturday, no parc ferme until start of qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
* it would be there teams’ responsibility to ensure safety, there would be significant penalties applied for the race if a team shows a car to continue in an unsafe condition, eg dangerously worn tyres.
dot_com (@dot_com)
3rd November 2023, 21:29
Obviously my preference would be to just ditch the sprint instead of kicking a dead horse. But I would prefer FP1, then one lap qualifying and the sprint race all on Friday. Get that whole sprint farce out of the way. Then normal service resumes on the weekend. Maybe an FP2 and then qualifying on Saturday morning. Grand Prix on Sunday.
Mark (@blueruck)
3rd November 2023, 21:50
Years ago in the USA there was something called IROC – they took top drivers from several disciplines and put them in equal cars and let them race. It was all skill.
FI – Each Mfg provides 5 identical cars and mechanical support for the cars on their race weekend. Put the drivers out on track in a 5 car shoot out. Only winner advances. All 4 winners run a 20 lap race and points are paid to the 4 racers only. Run this on a Saturday AM and leave the F1 car format alone.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
3rd November 2023, 23:26
So even less reason to risk anything at all in the sprint race if qualy for the main GP happens hours after it.
Theyve been complicating the system more and more every year. The simplest solution was the 2021 version and that was bad already. So the only way to improve is to finally get rid of it.
But they are not going to do it ofc.
Radoye
4th November 2023, 1:17
Although i prefer the normal grand prix weekend over the Sprint weekend, the biggest issue i have with the sprints as they are implemented now is that now some weekends and circuits now carry more points than others. It would be more fair if every weekend was a Sprint weekend, if we must have sprints…
Gusm.ai
4th November 2023, 17:17
My best – yet impracticable – solution would be a power unit alloted only for sprints.
I suspect that part of the lack of action on sprints is due to PU management.
Tyres conservation and crash avoidance is another part.