JANUARY 11, 2024

Sprint race format still under discussion

With just seven weeks to go before the start of the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship, there’s yet to be a consensus on the format that will be used in the six sprint events that will be part of this year’s season, with the promoters of those Grand Prix unable to set their own schedules and, of course, let the fans know the sequence of sessions before they make their final decision about buying tickets and for what days.

A controversial addition to the Formula 1 world in the middle of the 2021 season, the sprint event format initially featured the normal FP1 session early on Friday, followed by qualifying for the Sprint Race in the afternoon. Then, the drivers will take part in FP2 on Saturday, preparing for both races, before going for the Sprint Race in the afternoon, with the result of this race defining the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix. That, of course, made the drivers take a cautious approach to the shorter race, as they didn’t want to compromise their grid positions for Sunday, particularly because only the top three finishers scored points, with three points for the winnert being poor incentive for anyone to take a lot of risks.

That, however, created a continuity issue for the fans, as it was confusing to have quallifying on Friday, a separate event on Saturday and then the main event on Sunday, so the proposal that seems to attract more votes aims to solve that problem, with FP1 and the Sprint Shootout being run on Friday, the Sprint race and qualifying for Sunday’s race on Saturday and, then, the Grand Prix on Sunday.

But while there seems to be a consensus in trying this third format in three years, there’s a few ideas flying around about how to determine the grid for the Sprint Race. Some want it to be by inverted championship positions, others by inverted Sprint Shootout lap times, others want it to be like in Formula 2 and Formula 3, with the first half of the qualifying order inverted and some, more traditionalist ones, insisting thr grid order for both races should be determined by the qualifying sessions.

In the next couple of weeks several FIA commissions will meet, first with the Sporting Directors convening to try and narrow the number of proposals on the table and if that’s achieved, then the Team Principals will meet by videoconference to vote on a new format, that will then have to be approved by the Formula 1 Commission, before being rubber stamped by an e-vote from the World Council for Motor Sports. Only after all that is done, the promoters of the six sprint events scheduled for this year – China, Miami, Austria, Austin, Brazil and Qatar – will know what they’ll have to deal with, what schedule they’ll have to put together and what package they’ll be able to offer to the fans.