Should F1 have a SEPARATE Sprint Championship?
Sky Sports lead F1 TV race commentator David Croft discusses what changes to the rules in F1 he would make, around the Sprint races.
Although F1 is by far the most popular form of motorsports in the world, Croft has some interesting ideas that are worthy of serious consideration.
Croft believes the Sprint race concept could evolve further, to create a completely separate standalone series – one that includes removing the parc ferme stumbling block that has been a compromise through all Grand Prix sprint weekends.
“I think the sprint race concept is good, I like it,” he said.
“But I don’t like it being part of the World Championship. I like two separate World Championships. Have your sprint day on a Friday, maybe, rather than a Saturday.
“You could go into Sprint Qualifying and then the Sprint with maybe a 20-minute warm-up in the morning. That’s your Friday.
“Then the cars are not in parc ferme for the rest of the weekend. Then you have your practice session on the Saturday morning, Saturday qualifying, race on Sunday. So you’re keeping the two very separate, for different world championships.”
Croft’s suggestion also included the proposal that, should the main F1 drivers not want to take part, it’d be an ideal opportunity to give junior drivers a chance to shine in top-level machinery.
“If all the drivers don’t want to run in the Sprint World Championship, that’s fine,” he said.
“There are enough reserve drivers that do. Maybe that’s a good way of getting the reserve drivers involved in that. So commercially, that’s what I’d look at.”
Croft’s Proposal Highlights
Friday
- Practice
- Sprint Qualifying
- Sprint Race (Cars still not locked down under Parc Ferme Rules)
Saturday
- Practice
- GP Qualifying (Cars locked down under Parc Ferme Rules)
Sunday
- GP Race