F1 News
F1 considers second qualifying at the six 2023 sprint races
- GPblog.com
From 2023, not three, but six sprint races will be held. Doubling the number of sprint races is an idea of F1 itself and to ensure its popularity, careful consideration has been given to the best schedule for these six short races.
Drivers, including Max Verstappen, are not underwhelmed by sprint races. Formula 1 did not seem to listen to the drivers by announcing that instead of curbing sprint races, it will no less than double the number of sprint races next year. F1 did give some thought to how to keep sprint races as fun as possible.
F1 plans spectacular sprint races
Auto Motor und Sport reports that the relevance of Saturday's short races to the main race has been considered. On circuits like Emilia Romagna, where it is very difficult to overtake, it is neither fun nor profitable to have a sprint race. It is also not doable for the organiser at some circuits. Therefore, F1 has now made a provisional schedule of the six sprint races in 2023 that should work well.
The first sprint race will take place during the fifth F1 weekend of 2023 in Azerbaijan. After the success of the previous Grand Prix in Brazil, the sprint race in Sao Paulo will also return next year. The other four will be held in Austria, Belgium, Qatar and in the United States (Austin). Changes to these are still quite possible. AMuS reports that the sprint race in Qatar in particular is still a question mark.
Two qualifiers during sprint weekend?
Secondly, AMuS reports that F1 is also considering adding a second qualifying session during sprint weekends. If so, Friday would remain as it is now and there would be another qualifying session after the sprint race that takes place on Saturday, which determines the starting grid for Sunday. With this, drivers would possibly dare to take more risks during the sprint race. It might then be necessary to scrap another free practice.