All bar one of the six venues which are holding sprint events this year will do so again next season.
Formula 1 has confirmed the Red Bull Ring, which held its third consecutive sprint event this year, will not do so in 2025. Spa-Francorchamps will become a sprint event again, having previously held one last year.The other five venues are unchanged from this year. Interlagos, which has held a sprint race every year since the format’s introduction in 2021, will continue to do so. Shanghai International Circuit in China, Losail International Circuit in Qatar, Miami International Autodrome and Circuit of the Americas in the USA will hold the rest.
The arrangement means half of the last six rounds on the 2025 F1 calendar will be sprint events. Last year the drivers’ championship was decided in the sprint race at Losail, before a crowd of just 38,000 on Saturday.
F1 introduced sprint races in 2021, when just three were held, offering up to three points to the winner. The value of a win was increased to eight points the following year and the number of sprint events rose to six last season.
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said earlier this year he wants to increase the number of sprint rounds. However the format continues to divide opinion among fans, drivers and even race promoters.
Miami Grand Prix president Tyler Epp said the sprint event format brings “tremendous excitement and added energy to the race track” after holding it for the first time this year. But Canadian Grand Prix promoter Francois Dumontier claimed sprint races offer poor value for fans and isn’t worth the extra $4 million F1 charges for the format.
F1 has changed the sprint weekend format every year since it was introduced but no further alterations have been announced for 2025.
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lynn-m
11th July 2024, 13:55
Unfortunately means I won’t be watching most of the track action for my favourite circuit next year as I refuse to watch any of the Friday or Saturday action on sprint weekends as i refuse to show any support for the gimmick show over sport format.
And going by how quiet not just this site but also other social media places are on sprint weekends compared to normal weekends it doesn’t look like i’m the only one boycotting them. Seems pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain that the format doesn’t add anything of any substance and doesn’t seem to be driving engagement going by how quiet things are during them compared to normal weekends. Maybe this is why they don’t talk about ratings, attendance or engagement for them, probably all down compared to the real race weekend format.
Down with the silly artificial show over sport gimmick sprints!!!!!
notagrumpyfan
11th July 2024, 16:12
That’ll teach them :P
Coventry Climax
12th July 2024, 12:40
notagrumpyfan:
When I change the oil of my car, I don’t ditch the old oil somewhere in a nature reserve, or down the sewer, or just any drain.
Sure, just doing it once, or just me doing it, won’t make much difference on the global state of nature.
However, when 8 billion people globally do that, I’m sure even you can guess as to the problems that would present.
It’s a matter of principle.
Yes, a dying concept these days, it would seem. Think death penalty, freedom of religion, freedom to love whomever you prefer. Think the resurge of the brown shirts in countries all over the world.
But we also had all sorts of world revolutions started, because one person spoke out and stuck up his finger. In either science, religion, medicin, psychology or whatever. OK, some of those revolutions were maybe better than others.
But thank heavens we still have people with the guts to do so, against a whole sea of opposing forces.
Think Navalny, Thunberg and so many others, most of whom we don’t even get to hear about before they drown.
And no, just anonimously repeating the tweet of some obnoxious twit won’t make you one of them.
I know, you put a smiley of sorts behind your comment, but -in my view- it’s the wrong type of signal anyway.
I too, won’t be watching any of these sprint anomalies, and for me too, Spa is a big favorite.
I’m convinced there’s many more of ‘us’, most of which likely don’t comment on this site.
ady (@sixwheeler)
11th July 2024, 16:13
I hate that sprints dilute the excitement of the whole weekend. The main quali and race are less interesting because you already know how much pace everyone has. The sprint itself is too short to get into. Sprint qualifying has zero excitement whatsoever. The sprint itself is pretty much just a management session because nobody wants to risk car damage.
Everyone should be boycotting it and I wish it would go away. But yet, I keep watching it. Not because it’s any good, just because it happens to be some F1
nunof
12th July 2024, 19:09
Ok, bye!
User (@user576)
11th July 2024, 16:00
Alternative title would be ‘F1 announces which promoters are willing to pay $4m extra’
SteveP
11th July 2024, 16:09
Unfortunately, the one change that most of us seem to want, will almost certainly never happen.
Get rid of them.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
11th July 2024, 18:14
Always good to confirm COTA without even waiting to see how this year goes.
Jere (@jerejj)
11th July 2024, 19:55
Last year’s Sprint is already a decent reference.
kuvemar
11th July 2024, 18:56
What a shame. The time for trials should be over. Was hoping they would finally add sprint to every race weekend. I guess the very vocal minority did have some success badmouthing the sprints.
Neil (@neilosjames)
11th July 2024, 19:08
Quite sad about that, as I prefer a normal race weekend at my favourite tracks. Shoving a sprint-spoiler in there takes something away from the main event.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
12th July 2024, 3:30
For me it means missing one of my favourite events because I absolutely refuse to participate in any part of a sprint abomination weekend.
The really unfortunate part is if enough people vote with their eyeballs and choose to skip that one, it’ll give them an excuse to dump spa as a venue because of reduced/no interest from fans.
Jere (@jerejj)
11th July 2024, 19:59
Ending the sprint format streak for Red Bull Ring is weird & even weirder is replacing it with Spa-Francorchamps, given the latter already had the sprint format last season before reverting to standard format for this season, over a circuit that hasn’t had a sprint yet, so in hindsight, instead of this unnecessary back-&-forth switching, it would’ve been better off staying among the six for this season as well.
Doubling the total amount to 12 is something I could’ve seen coming, but ultimately 6 again, but I’m okay with either amount.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
12th July 2024, 1:10
I don’t mind having a sprint at a good track like spa, without sprint in 2023 we’d have had very little rain in competitive sessions, instead we got a wet sprint quali, sprint race and quali, not too wet but that’s because they had some delays cause they were afraid to run with true wet conditions.
Coventry Climax
12th July 2024, 12:21
So now they’ll race sub optimally prepared at Spa as well.
I have no doubt that when accidents occur, all the blame will go to the circuit.
Spa has been on the ‘unwanted’ list for some time now, not by the fans, but by the owners of F1, and for reasons of money only.
So, maybe Spa don’t really have a choice but give in to FiA and Liberty pressure?
My thoughts? Could be they signed their own death sentence, either from what I say above, or from desinterest by the public and having trouble earning back the extra investment. Either way, stupid choice by Spa.
If I’m still watching F1 at all by that time, I’ll be watching that sunday exclusively.