There is no longer any doubt that Sprint racing is here to stay. Now it’s a matter of calibrating the format and the number of tests per year. F1 is aiming for six races a year from 2023 and has left open format changes. Some riders have given their opinion on sprint racing.
George Russell was the most critical and argued that races should be longer:
“I’m not a big fan of this, in all honesty,” Russell said of the sprint format, quoted by autosport.com. “The race probably needs to be 50% longer, or just a little longer to see the tires degrade. Drivers may need to manage the tires a little more, and then you can see a little more difference between cars. Right now, everyone is deep, and there’s not a big enough lap time difference to see overtakes, unless you qualify out of position as you’ve seen with some cars.”
Kevin Magnussen also advocated changes, but the Dane focused on Parc Fermé rules:
“There may be some tweaks, and I don’t know if I agree with Parc Fermé between FP1 and qualifying,” said Magnussen. “You can no longer work on the car and that is a little more difficult for the smaller teams”.
Lando Norris, on the other hand, was in favor of sprint races, mainly for making Friday a more interesting day, but said that he would not like to see more than three Sprints a year.
The weekend takes on a different dynamic with the Sprint race, but it is still difficult to say clearly that this format is an asset. Admittedly, Sprint race weekends have been dramatic, but the races themselves have not been as breathtaking as thought. There is work to be done, but one thing is for sure: making sprint racing the norm is frowned upon by anyone.
