Why F1 shouldn't wed itself to tradition over sprint race decision

Formula 1 is a championship that is both strengthened and shackled by tradition.

Its current success owes a lot to its glorious past, with a direct line that can be traced back from the contemporary car and drivers to those initial first steps as a world championship back in 1950. Teams like Ferrari, and races like the Monaco Grand Prix, are so big now because of their history. Their past success make what happens right now even more important.

Yet equally, F1's past can weigh heavy at times.

It has sometimes been said that tradition is just peer pressure from dead people. And it's true that, when F1's bosses have previously tried to shake things up, the argument that it does not fit the championship's DNA often becomes a first point of resistance.

F1 very much feels comfortable when it is doing things as they have always been done. It's never been too open armed at trying something totally new.

It is that fine balancing act between maintaining the strong traditions that are its foundations, but without that stopping you from making changes for the better, that were referenced quite strongly by new F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali last week when he spoke about how he views his tasks.

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"The responsibility that I feel is to make sure that the incredible platform that we have will be even stronger in the future," he said. "For always in life, you know, the things that are too stable, will become old."

It is against that backdrop that Domenicali will talk with teams in the F1 Commission meeting later on Thursday to discuss something that could be a total break with tradition - and will likely raise some strong feelings. It's sprint races.

F1 owner Liberty Media has been open that part of its push to improve the series and make it more attractive to fans is to shake-up the race weekend format.

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While Domenicali is clear that the previous regime's idea of a reversed-grid qualifying race is 'over', he has instead pushed forward with plans to shake up the weekend with a Saturday sprint race.

The concept is quite simple. Qualifying will be shifted to Friday (so there will be just one free practice session), and on Saturday there will instead be a short race to settle the final grid for Sunday.

The sprint races aren't replacing qualifying: they are an addition. And it will mean that fans on Friday will be treated to a qualifying session rather than a second practice session - so is added entertainment

The 'sprint' will be around 100km in length so should get completed within the one hour window that qualifying normally is. Plus, as well as settling the grid, half points would be awarded to ensure that there was plenty to play for.

While F1 wants to trial the sprint race format at a few events in 2021 - Canada, Italy and Brazil - where overtaking is a little easier than other venues, the hope is that longer term, if successful, it could be rolled out either at a majority of venues or indeed all of them.

Of course, such a radical shake up of an F1 weekend has served to divide opinion. There are those who view the sprint race format as sacrilege. They argue that it is fixing a problem that doesn't need fixing, because F1's current qualifying format is one aspect that works so well.

There is also some scepticism about what it is aiming to achieve, because it is unlikely to serve up any ingredient that will potentially spice up the main action on Sunday when most people tune in. Indeed, the real concern is that a sprint race on Saturday could serve to take some of the shine off the grand prix itself.

It runs the risk of delivering all the answers about race pace one day early too. For a runaway winner on Saturday is equally likely to roar away with it on Sunday - so there would be little reason to watch the GP and find out whether the driver in question can do so again. It will therefore remove a lot of the intrigue, uncertainty and debate that make the build up to grands prix so exciting.

And what about the increased risks for teams of car damage? Or of world championship contenders having their weekends derailed by a bit of bad luck on Saturday afternoon?

But on the flip side, there are those who think a Saturday sprint race can be a good idea. For the format is not really about making Saturdays better as such; it's bigger picture than that. It is about making more of an entire grand prix weekend, by ensuring that something important happens on each of the three days.

The sprint races aren't replacing qualifying: they are an addition. And it will mean that fans on Friday will be treated to a qualifying session rather than a second practice session - so is added entertainment.

It will also mean that there will be one hour less practice for teams and drivers to prepare themselves for the race, so there should be an extra element of jeopardy thrown into the system because there won't be so much assurance about the life of tyres and car set-up.

And the arguments about a sprint race format offering the complete answer on how a Sunday grand prix plays out may not strictly be true.

Perhaps the most obvious example of a major event using the format of a proper qualifying, a qualifying race and then the actual main show is the Macau Grand Prix. And it has often delivered completely different winners and results on the Sunday compared to its qualifying race on the Saturday.

Furthermore, the tension for the main event on Sunday is always so much higher than for the Saturday qualifying race, so there does not seem to be any question of the shine being taken off proceedings.

The sprint race debate for now is primarily about trying something new out to see if it works. This is not a push to change things forever - as that original botched move to elimination qualifying several years ago was

But, amid the equally valid arguments on both sides of the divide on sprint races, there is one important aspect that needs to be considered before it's declared a brave new world or the end of civilisation as we know it.

The sprint race debate for now is primarily about trying something new out to see if it works. This is not a push to change things forever - as that original botched move to elimination qualifying several years ago was.

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This is about a trial to see how things play out. For you can argue all you want about the potential pros and cons, but until you know what happens then there cannot be a definitive answer about whether it works or not.

Toto Wolff frequently recalls Babe Ruth's famous quote that: "Yesterday's home runs don't win today's game." It's a mantra that has suited the Mercedes F1 team well in not letting complacency creep in, but it's also something that fits the series itself.

For, however strong grand prix racing's tradition is, it cannot just rely on how things have been done in the past if it's to ensure it becomes bigger and better in the future.

What F1 shouldn't be afraid of then is at least trying things out; and then if they go wrong, being grown up enough to admit it was a mistake and rolling back on it.

It is the only way to ultimately make things better.