F1: Steiner and drivers suggest change to Sprint Race weekends

World champion Max Verstappen reiterated his stance in Brazil on Thursday when he said one of the big negatives of the sprints was that drivers were reluctant to risk too much for fear of dropping down the grid for Sunday’s main race…..just as we said below.

“Honestly, I’m just not a big fan of it because I feel like we don’t really race,” he said.

“There are a few points that you get, but you also know that you can’t really risk it because the main race is where you really get the points. You don’t do a pitstop, so you just put on the tire which will last the distance, right?

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing attends the Drivers Press Conference during previews ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Brazil at Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace on November 10, 2022 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202211100419 // Usage for editorial use only //

“With these cars, probably the racing is a little bit better. But, overall, you don’t really see a lot of overtaking unless there is a car out of position. So then, yeah, it’s not really that fun for me.”

“Max has a good point that the risks that you want to take in the sprint are less because it decides the position for Sunday,” Haas driver Kevin Magnussen said.

“So I think maybe a good tweak could be to separate that, so you can go for it.”

November 9, 2022

Haas F1 team boss Guenther Steiner has suggested a rule change that would introduce two qualifying sessions on Sprint race weekends.

The current schedule for sprint weekends includes a single Friday practice session before the standard hour-long qualifying which dictates the grid for Saturday’s sprint race. Results of the sprint race then decide the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

This means that Saturday’s second practice session is rendered futile because teams can not make any changes to their cars after Friday’s qualifying. Therefore, Steiner has proposed a change that includes two qualifying sessions to avoid a moot session on Saturday.

“I favor more sprints as it makes the overall race weekend interesting by having qualifying on Friday,” Steiner said. “What I’d like even more is having qualifying for the sprint on Friday and qualifying for the main race on Saturday morning, as the free practice currently isn’t very meaningful for anyone.

“Then on Saturday afternoon you have the sprint, followed by the main event on Sunday.” He added: “It’s a race like any other, but it’s shorter and with eight drivers rather than 10 scoring points. I favor more sprints as it makes the overall race weekend interesting by having qualifying on Friday.”

We like Steiner’s idea because if a driver gets involved in a crash in the Sprint Race, not of his own doing, this has a major impact on their starting position in the feature race – a double whammy that is not fair.

In this way, qualifying determines your starting position in both races.