F1 announces 2024 Sprint Race schedule with huge changes

Sprint races have always been a huge point of discussion in F1.

F1 announces 2024 Sprint Race schedule with huge changes

Fernando Alonso at Spa (Via IMAGO)

The 2024 Formula 1 season is quite a few months away but ahead of the highly anticipated campaign, the sport’s hierarchy has dropped the Sprint race schedule for next year. A total of six Sprint races will take place next year just like 2023 but there have been two replacements.

As per RaceFans, the iconic Spa-Francorchamps and the Baku Street Circuit will not be seen hosting Sprint races next year, instead, they will replaced by Miami and the Shanghai International Circuit. Moreover, they will be hosting the fourth and sixth rounds of next year’s Formula 1 calendar.

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When it comes to the other circuits that would be hosting the Sprint races, Interlagos will host the event for the fourth consecutive time, the Red Bull Ring will also be seen using the highly debated format for a third successive season. The other two are the Circuit of the Americas and the Losail International Circuit.

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The Sprint races have been introduced by F1 as a ploy to increase the interest level of fans in the sport, but to their and several other esteemed people’s surprise, the format has so far received mixed reactions. Some have liked it whereas quite a few are completely against it.

Max Verstappen is not a supporter of the Sprint race format

While Formula 1 has been experimenting quite a lot with the Sprint race format in recent years, the reigning world champion, Max Verstappen on several occasions has made it known that he is completely against it. During the 2023 campaign, he blasted the format and said, “Why do we need to try and invent something?“

Max Verstappen (Credits: Imago)
Max Verstappen (Credits: Imago)

Verstappen ardently feels that the F1 product works just fine with Sprints and thus, does not need any unnecessary experimenting.

I think our product works, if you just make sure that the cars are competitive and the rules stay the same for a long time, why are we always inventing new things.

Sprint races have sometimes proved highly entertaining whereas on some other occasions, it has proved completely placid with cars following each other in a DRS train. This year’s Sprint events saw mixed reactions and considering this, it would be fascinating to see how the events would perform in 2024.

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