F1: Steiner liked new Sprint Weekend format, needs tweaks

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Haas team boss Guenther Steiner said he was relatively pleased with the new Sprint Race weekend format went in Baku last weekend.

The biggest complaint we have heard, is that cars are locked down in Parc Ferme rules after FP1 on Friday morning and if you do not have the car working well after just one practice, your entire weekend is screwed.

There is talk of not putting the cars in Parc Ferme lockdown until after Sprint Qualifying Saturday morning. That makes so much more sense.

Speaking about last weekend, Steiner said, “As an event, it went well. It was the first one and there was a lot going on during the race weekend, and we still need to get our heads around it.

“For example, if we do Qualifying for the Grand Prix on Friday, do we disconnect between the race on Sunday and what happens in-between on Saturday?

“I don’t know the verdict yet, and FOM will speak to the fans to see what they have got to say and see if you need to switch it around, but overall I’m very happy with what happened.

“It’s quite intense for the teams and drivers but that’s what it should be like, in my opinion.

“I questioned Free Practice on Saturday, but it’s not boring anymore with Qualifying – it’s the complete opposite – and that’s what we want.

“All in all, we should go ahead and we should look into the details to see if we need to make small changes or not.”