Plans for a post-season sprint race for rookies are moving closer to becoming a reality, Formula 1 team bosses say.
The concept was originally mooted for 2025 but Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said momentum is growing for the race to take place this year following the post-season test at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi.“It’s like all things in life, if you want it to happen, you make it happen,” said Horner. “I think there was a clear directive to let’s get the job done for this year. So obviously that puts pressure on the Sporting Working Groups and the various team managers to work with the FIA to come up with a set of regulations.”
Horner said the event is likely to take place in a single day and run to the same regulations used for Formula 1’s sprint races.
“I think mainly adopting sprint regs and so on it’s eminently do-able,” he said. “It doesn’t need to be overly complicated.”
Teams would enter just one car instead of two, said Horner, meaning the grid would contain just 10 cars. The qualifying session would therefore need to be adjusted as the current SQ1 and SQ2 phases would become meaningless.
“It’s just going to be a single car from each team rather than two cars,” he explained. “Effectively you’re just using the mileage in a different way as opposed to just performing during a test day.
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“So I think the event will take place all in one day: Qualifying and then you put on another sprint race.”
It would be the 31st F1 race in what has already been the longest-ever F1 season, featuring 24 rounds plus six sprint races. However Horner believes it would be a worthwhile replacement for the regular young drivers’ test.
“It’s something that I tabled at the last couple of Formula 1 Commissions because I think it’s great for the young drivers,” said Horner.
“The problem with some of the rookie tests is they all get used for testing. You never know are they running on 50 kilos, 70 kilos, 30 kilos of fuel, what engine motor are they going? You don’t really know how the opposition is doing.
“So I think this, a non-championship race for the junior drivers, is a fantastic opportunity. It comes at the end of a busy season, but opposed to just running around burning fuel and tyres and only the teams that are running those drivers knowing whether they’re doing a good job or not, to give potentially 10 rookies the opportunity of jumping in the current cars and having the equivalent of a sprint race, I think is fantastic.”
Among the drivers potentially eligible to participate are Jack Doohan, who will make his F1 debut for Alpine next year, Andrea Kimi Antonelli who will do the same at Mercedes and his Formula 2 team mate Oliver Bearman who is joining Haas.
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Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu also supports the idea of a non-championship race for rookies. “I think it’s great,” he said. “The post-season test, if you don’t do things like that, you are just in a tyre test. So I think that adds value to the day and makes it more exciting and an opportunity to put a young driver in the car.
“These days it’s such a rare opportunity for young drivers to get in a current Formula 1 car so I think it’s very interesting move.”
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David
13th September 2024, 14:01
But why? To give 6th and 7th an F1 seat the next year?
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
13th September 2024, 22:15
To practice, obviously. Letting the young drivers fight head-to-head, push for a qualifying lap, go through all the procedures of a race start, and also show their talent.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
13th September 2024, 14:08
There’s going to have to be some sort of incentive for teams to put “good” rookies in the car rather than just taking the highest paying rookie.
What that incentive needs to be I’m not sure.
If the car finishes above their WCC standing they get a box of chocolates?
Nick T.
14th September 2024, 4:13
They need 10 rookies + 10 current drivers to make this truly worthwhile.
notagrumpyfan
14th September 2024, 8:10
Make this to replace FP and Quali of the race proper. Then there is an incentive to put the best rookie in the car and the added benefit of having ‘green’ main drivers on Sunday.
They will have to do it on Friday though, as Saturday is needed to repair the cars ;)
Johns
13th September 2024, 14:21
Great. So a rookie does well. There is no space on the grid for him next season anyway.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
13th September 2024, 22:17
We will have 3 rookies, maybe 4 with Liam Lawson at RB and possibly even 5 with Gabriel Bortoleto at Audi-Sauber, next season. That’s between 15-25% of the total grid.
Palindnilap (@palindnilap)
13th September 2024, 14:23
Sprint or not, I would definitely watch that race with interest ! It would be even better if it was restricted to people without a F1 seat next year.
Senna versus Schumacher and other Formula One rivalries that never happened
13th September 2024, 15:03
A non-championship Formula 1 race, now that’s an interesting idea!
SteveP
13th September 2024, 17:00
I wish I’d thought of it, like maybe doing several of them instead of those “sprint” things.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
14th September 2024, 8:09
It wouldn’t work during the season, what if someone crashes and costs a team in the championship?
SteveP
14th September 2024, 10:50
Not if they were using last year’s car
Jere (@jerejj)
13th September 2024, 15:37
I’m perfectly okay with this proposal, not to mention only the minimum lap amount that reaches 100 km + Q3 on the same day, i.e., the following day, with Tuesday being used for testing as usual.
I guess the sprint race would start at something like 20:00 local (to maximize TV viewing on a weekday) & a short qualifying, perhaps 18 minutes like regular Q1, at 17:00 or whatever.
As for the possible drivers, I could see the following options:
McLaren: Pato O’Ward or Gabriel Bortoleto
Ferrari: Robert Shwartzman
Red Bull Racing: Liam Lawson or Isack Hadjar
Mercedes: Andrea Antonelli, without a doubt
Aston Martin: Felipe Drugovich
Alpine: Jack Doohan, also without a doubt
Visa RB: Liam Lawson or Isack Hadjar, whichever wouldn’t drive the RB20
Haas: Oliver Bearman
Williams: I struggle to come up with any viable options for this team
Sauber: Pourchaire or Maloney
Simon
13th September 2024, 21:07
Nope to all of this…
SteveP
14th September 2024, 10:51
You love Jere really, but you’re playing hard to get, eh?
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
13th September 2024, 22:23
I think Lawson has done too many races actually, so it might look like this:
Red Bull: Hadjar
Ferrari: Shwartzman, Dino Beganovic, or Arthur Leclerc
Mercedes: Antonelli
McLaren: O’Ward
Aston Martin: Drugovich
RB: Martí or Goethe or Iwasa (or Arvid Lindblad)
Haas: Bearman
Alpine: Doohan
Williams: Zak O’Sullivan, Jamie Chadwick, or whoever pays
Sauber: Maloney
John Beak (@johnbeak)
13th September 2024, 15:38
A non-championship race? More so an opportunity for rookie drivers to showcase themselves in real F1 machinery? I’m all for that.
If we’re counting non-championship races, this would quite certainly not be the longest season in terms of number of races. Quickly going through available sources, each of 1952, 1953, 1954, and 1961 had more than 31 races including championship and non-championship rounds. Same is true of 1947 before the championship even began, but I couldn’t confirm how many were actually run to F1 rules. It is possible that more of the early years also hit the threshold but it would require more thorough research to say for certain.
PeteB (@peteb)
13th September 2024, 16:36
“An opportunity for rookie drivers to showcase themselves in real F1 machinery” is a good thing. Will we get that though? I think it’ll be an opportunity for some rich parents to buy their kids an arrive and drive session in an F1 car.
Nikos (@exeviolthor)
13th September 2024, 21:55
This is easily resolved if they say that a superlicense is needed to participate in the race.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
14th September 2024, 1:45
Yes, and I would be surprised if it’s not, I mean, since a superlicense is needed to drive normal f1 races, they’d let you drive a sprint in a f1 car without? I’m pretty sure it’ll be needed.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
13th September 2024, 15:56
Ten F1 cars doing 19 laps of Yas Marina is unlikely to be the most thrilling prospect, to put it mildly. But somebody might sponsor it, there will doubtless be TV money involved and some of the drivers might even pay for a seat. So I can see why the teams are enthusiastic.
SteveP
14th September 2024, 10:54
You see, there’s another reason to run it in place of those sprint things. Using last year’s car.
PeteB (@peteb)
13th September 2024, 16:34
Can’t say I’m too bothered… In theory, it’d be cool to see some youngsters compete in a race as it removes all the nonsense about fuel levels etc you get when they’re just testing. We’ll be able to clearly see who has performed well and who hasn’t.
Unfortunately though, as it’s just a short race, the teams don’t really stand to gain anything from it in terms of data so instead of picking decent young drivers, they’ll just sell the seat to the highest bidder. It’ll be a race of Mazepins and Strolls.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
13th September 2024, 16:46
I can’t say I have much desire to watch a 10 car sprint race around Yas Marina featuring drivers I don’t know (As I don’t watch F2/F3 anymore) given how I already usually feel like i’d rather be doing anything other than watching the GP around that place.
The fact that Yas Marina was a purpose build track primarily for F1 is why I would put it as the worst circuit on the calender. At least with Miami, Vegas & jeddah (Also circuits I really dislike) you have the excuse that they are street circuits that have to follow existing roads (Or conines of a car park in Miami’s case)….. But Yas Marina was a black piece of paper so the fact it’s as uninspiring a circuit as it is and that even with 2 long DRS zones it struggles to produce much of what you can actually call good racing makes it easily for me by far the worst circuit F1 races at.
AlanD
13th September 2024, 18:39
I am disappointed it is only sprint length, but I guess that removes the quirks of tyre changes and lets everyone use one set of softs. It will be interesting to see f this race mirrors the pecking order of the teams, i.e. will we see it as a race between Red Bull, McLaren, Merc, or will we see drivers mattering much more than machinery?
Billys (@bilarxos)
13th September 2024, 19:36
Maybe ,given the opportunity, try some female driver.
Imre (@f1mre)
13th September 2024, 23:21
Flörsch is an Alpine Academy driver, has tested in F2.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
14th September 2024, 1:48
I checked, f3 results don’t look like anything special, why not try chadwick if we need to assess how good the best female driver currently is? I don’t think anyone can claim to have done better than her recently.
Imre (@f1mre)
14th September 2024, 8:17
Competing in F3 is worth more than winning Women’s Series.
Imre (@f1mre)
13th September 2024, 23:20
They could use the other 10 cars for an invitational legends race. With Raikkonen, Rosberg and whoever else is fit enough to do an hour in an F1 car.
Ferrari Raikkonen
Mercedes Rosberg
RB Vettel
McLaren Button
Alpine Trulli
AM Fisichella
Williams Barrichello
Sauber Massa
RB Webber
Haas Grosjean
someone or something
14th September 2024, 0:34
I think you’re vastly underestimating just how fit a driver needs to be in order to last an hour in an F1 car. I see one, maaaaaybe two names in your list that might fit the bill at short notice.
Imre (@f1mre)
14th September 2024, 8:20
I do think most could prepare in a month or two. Not to 100% but for a 30-minute race plus 20-minute quali.
someone or something
18th September 2024, 21:47
Make that half a year, and I’m inclined to agree. A month or two is hardly enough to prepare for a marathon if you’re a decent runner, and half an hour in a modern F1 car is so much worse, it makes running a marathon look like a recreational jog in the park.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
14th September 2024, 1:51
Interesting though that you picked drivers who drove those cars (sometimes under a different names) before, and particularly in case of raikkonen, rosberg, vettel, you went for the car where they actually won a championship or more, rather than other representative choices like raikkonen mclaren or vettel ferrari.
The exception to the rule is button, since I think brawn gp then became mercedes.
Imre (@f1mre)
14th September 2024, 8:19
Yeah, I did it on purpose and from memory. Probably there is a more realistic lineup.
Mig29smt
13th September 2024, 23:27
Man if the car fails it would be a nightmare for the one who drives, make it two sprint races at least.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
14th September 2024, 8:00
Would love to see it, all good ideas, great comments too.
Only thing I’d be slightly concerned about is 10 rookies on the track at once racing F1 cars. Weren’t F1 not too long ago using safety as a reason to raise the minimum age of drivers, now that’s being rescinded and we’re talking about letting 10 teenagers drive F1 cars in a proper race each year?
Can’t they just bring new drivers into the sport properly, with the correct training and without shortcuts, earned on merit through feeder series? And if there’s not enough seats, it’s not as if there aren’t team applications from household American names being knocked back.