Has F1 gone too far with its sprint race format tweaks?
After the first sprint race of the season at the Azerbaijan GP MATT KEW wonders whether F1 has gone too far in tinkering with the format
In this lucrative Liberty Media-owned era for Formula 1, it’s easier to foresee every round featuring a sprint race sooner than the format being scrapped altogether. Money talks, so a 57% boost to the TV audience curiously tuning in to watch a new qualifying shootout for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix versus 2022 means the revised schedule is here to stay. As such it’s a more efficient use of energy to seek to optimise the latest restructure instead of futilely lamenting its very existence.
That begins with urging the FIA to close the silly loophole for the Saturday sprint qualifying that meant those who burned through their new tyre allocation come the end of Q2 could not then enter Q3. While the format alterations were only voted through at the 11th hour before heading to Baku, this was not a good look, leaving Pirelli hamstrung. Removing just one car from the top 10 battle diminishes the very spectacle these timetable tweaks sought to enhance. Likewise, legislators must immediately write a clause to prevent those drivers with no new dry rubber from then setting a time on wets, as Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda might theoretically have done to gain a grid spot over the other. While ultimately neither attempted this trick, the fact they could have is a clear oversight.
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