24 April 2023 , 07:00
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Sprint race weekends in Formula 1 have divided opinion amongst drivers, team principals, pundits and fans alike since their creation.
But that has not slowed down their progress with 2023 set to feature more Sprints than ever before. The first of the six to be held across the campaign will take place this weekend at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Introduced in 2021, the Sprint is a 100km race which takes place on the Saturday of a race weekend, with qualifying moved to the Friday instead. It was brought in to provide more competitive action for fans, with F1 chiefs not keen on practice sessions which they feel do no excite the audience.
Chief executive Stefano Domenicali has proposed to the World Motor Sport Council that, on a Sprint weekend, the Saturday morning practice session should be scrapped and replaced with a second qualifying session which sets the grid for that short-form race, while the Friday session would decide the order for Sunday's Grand Prix.
"Of course, there needs to be the time for practice, but the people are coming to see performance and the more that you give the teams and drivers the chance to see who they are, the better it is for the show," explained the Italian.
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"It's not because we don't respect the traditions, we respect the old way of thinking of our weekend, but it would be wrong not to think about it – we also have a new generation that are coming in that are more aggressive in asking for something different."
F1 chief Stefano Domenicali wants to alter the Sprint weekend format again (HOCH ZWEI/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)However, straying away from tradition has predictably caused fierce debate within the paddock and among fans. A social media poll found that a majority 56.2% of fans are happy with the current format. But that result also indicates that almost half are open to change.
Among the drivers, double world champion Max Verstappen has been the fiercest critic of the Sprint format. He said: "I am not a fan of it at all. When we do all that kind of stuff, the weekend becomes very intense, and we already do a lot of races."
He even went as far as to threaten to leave the sport: "I hope there won't be too many changes, otherwise I won't be around for too long." Not that his Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is too concerned about the Dutchman walking away any time soon.
Max Verstappen is not a fan of the F1 Sprint format (Kamran Jebreili/AP/REX/Shutterstock)Alfa Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas is also cautious about the prospect of expanding the Sprint format after the number of weekends doubled from three to six for this season. He said: "I don't think we need to have sprints every weekend – but just less practice."
Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle understands that F1 needs to develop with more spectators wanting more action. He opined: "I like the format we've got now. Of course, we ended up with the qualifying system we've got and everything about Formula 1 because we've changed it in the past and finessed it and evolved."
Most in the F1 paddock can agree that the sport needs to change with the times, but not everyone feels such evolution should be as dramatic as proposed. Plus, as ever, there is concern over the one thing that is absolutely guaranteed to be on every team boss' mind – cash.
Red Bull boss Horner and McLaren chief Zak Brown believe Sprint races could be costly to teams if made permanent. And the former also pointed out the potential issue for costly crashes during an extra race on the tight streets of Baku, calling that decision "absolutely ludicrous".
But not everyone is so unenthusiastic about the format. George Russell the most recent Sprint winner in Sao Paulo last year, said: "I don't think it's right that Formula 1 has three times the amount of practice that you have in F3 and F2," but also expressed his belief that "no practice would be too little".
He added: "This is still the pinnacle of the sport, and you don't want to be just left with the car that you created at the start of the year with no opportunity to try out new things – whereas if you're going straight into a session that is points-worthy or there is a reward, you're less likely to trial new things."
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George Russell won F1's most recent Sprint, in Brazil last year (Andre Penner/AP/REX/Shutterstock)His Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton also holds an opinion contrary to that of Verstappen, and said: "I do think we constantly need to be evolving and assessing what we're doing. I quite like the Friday of a Sprint weekend so far and I'd love to have more qualifying because that's always super fun.
"I just think it should be different. Perhaps we can just apply just slightly small changes to different races, specific to those places? But if there's a race where you can't overtake like Monaco, what else can we do there to make it more exciting?”
While some are content to sit on the fence, other have been happy to lend their full support to F1's plans. One of those allies to the Sprint is Ferrari chief Frederic Vasseur, who said: "I like the format. I'm not a big fan of the usual FP2, sometimes it's a bit boring... To try to have something more dynamic during the weekend is a good decision."
And F1 veteran Fernando Alonso enjoys the Sprints. He said: "I hope we can keep this format and, if anything, I will suggest Fridays could be more spicy. Like having one set of tyres and one attempt by everybody. It gives the same chance to everyone – it's not unfair or a reverse order or anything like that."