How could F1 make Saturday sprint races work?
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Formula 1 is still considering sprint races for 2021, but has given up on including reverse grids as part of them:
F1 drops reverse grid plan in new push for Saturday sprint races in 2021
So how could a sprint race format work within F1? Should it award championship points? Should it set the grid for the grand prix? Or would you prefer not to see them at all?
I’d like to see the sprint race being a one-make series. Start position either by lottery or minimal qualifying. This would give the fans a who’s the best driver discussion as well as randomising the weekend a bit. Finishing positions to decide the grid for Sunday. This also removes the jeopardy of car damage on Saturday, unless the driver bins it in practice.
I think they should have a 1 hour race on Saturday, and the grid for the Sunday race should be based on the fastest lap times in that Saturday race. We could call it something like “qualifying race”, or just “qualifying” for short.
(yes I liked the classic 1 hour qualifying format around 2000 the most, why do you ask?)
@hunocsi You mean cars burning fuel for 50 min while saving tires then go at it in last minutes? Wouldn’t work that well with current teams and cars.
I am not against a return to one lap per car though. Get the chance to fully appreciate the effort of each driver, there is only one go at it with the difference in pressure it might make to the drivers. Yes conditions might evolve but it’s ok if it’s just for sprint race start grid.
Was thinking about incentive for teams and driver to push except start position for the next race. What about the best currency after money and points in modern F1. Top 5 teams would gain an extra set of fresh tires for Sunday while last 5 teams would lose a set from their allocation. A bit too gimmick in my opinion and I don’t really like it, but do I want points awarded during sprint races, not sure. Do I want cars to hold position and defend their next start, not really. Do I see other reason for teams to fight on track, no.
As stated before, I really hope they use those races as marketing product targeted to attract new fans into the sport, ie. keep them out of paywalls. That might be the major gain for F1.
@jeanrien I mean a return to 1 hour qualifying :) There is no need for sprint races if we already have 20+ races in a season.
I have an idea for a qualifying format that I think it could work and it would not reduce the value of the Sunday race.
In total, the qualifying would be made of four sprint races, each one of them with only 10 cars on the track.
On the Saturday morning, there would be two pre-qualifying sprint races (QR1 and QR2), which the top 5 in each one of them would qualify for the main qualifying sprint race (QR4) on Saturday afternoon. The QR4 will decide the places on the grid from pole to 10th. Then, there would be another qualifying sprint race on Saturday afternoon (QR3) to decide the places on the grid from 11th to 20th.
I think for this idea to work the teams in the two pre-qualifying sprint races should not be allowed to have the two cars in the same sprint race. In another words, each pre-qualifying sprint race (QR1 and QR2) would have one car for each team.
One positive aspect of this format is that all cars will get the same amount of running as long as they do not crash or have a technical problem in the sprint races.
I hope it’s not very confusing. :-)
I think it is going to wind up being more expensive. In order to get around having accident damage that you can’t repair in time, I think they will need to have a fully built up car and a tub that they can build up. Present rules only allow for an unbuilt tub, but if you are running 2 cars it is always possible that both could be damaged. Even though they are talking about the sprint race paying points, it won’t offset not being able to compete on Sunday.
Personally I count the sprint race as a bad idea…
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