Six sprint races from 2023? New proposal awaits the approval of FIA President

Six sprint races from 2023? New proposal awaits the approval of FIA President

The start of the F1 sprint race of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend,.

Last weekend’s feature race was certainly entertaining. 5-way battles, daring overtakes, Fernando Alonso’s antics, it really had everything. The same cannot be said for the sprint race, as it was not particularly entertaining. The top 4 spots remained unchanged, and the only real bit of action in the front was the tussling of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

Perhaps it was this tussling that prevented a more entertaining race, as Ferrari, with their better tyre degradation, would have been able to chase down Max Verstappen, but their internal fight meant that they were too behind to mount a true attack in the number of laps they had. In the feature race, Charles Leclerc was able to complete the job, and Carlos Sainz would likely have done it too if not for his engine failure.

The sprint race in Imola had been a little more entertaining than the one in Austria. There have been questions regarding if Austria is the best track for a sprint after all. On this matter, Toto Wolff believes Stefano Domenicali will make the right decisions: “I think if I have confidence in one person to choose the right sprints, it’s Stefano. He will have looked closely at Austria and take that into account.”

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Toto Wolff blames performance gap for dull sprint races

Toto Wolff
Toto Wolff

Toto Wolff does think that the general event could be better, but he also sees the blame in performance gaps for dull sprint races, especially in Austria. There is much less room for strategy than in a normal race, and often there are no pit stops either, so the sprint is mostly all performance. As reported by Motorsport-Total.com Wolff said: “I think the reason why the races are less entertaining is that there are just too big performance differences between the teams.”

He added: “Verstappen disappears into the distance, the two Ferraris are the only entertainment during the race and we’re in the middle of nowhere. The others are even further behind and then there are DRS trains. That can never be a good sprint.”

The sprints have certainly increased excitement with spectators, even if some are critical of it. Opinions are divided in the paddock, but generally, according to Formula 1, the feedback has been fairly positive. The sprint races add another day of action to the race weekend, but they do compromise data collecting for the teams. They truly only have one practice session instead of the 3, as the one on Saturday is spent mostly in preparing for the sprint race.

Daniel Ricciardo welcomes the change, saying that if there is something to fight for every day, then it makes his weekend a little bit more exciting. There is a lot of pressure involved in sprint race weekends, as teams do not have the time to adapt and collect data as they do on normal weekends. He feels that the change is ‘refreshing’.

Next year, the current three sprint races are set to double to six sprint race weekends, however, this is not yet official and requires the approval of the FIA President, Muhamed Ben Sulayem.

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