Verstappen does not like the new sprint format: ‘Wrong call, you are stuck’
F1 News
Max Verstappen has won qualifying by quite a distant gap to the rest of the field, but says that it was difficult and that he does not like the new sprint format. The defending champion answered to GPblog and expanded on this issue.
"It's definitely a bit more hit-and-miss, because we went onto the slick tyres during qualifying and then you finally start to pick up a bit what the car is actually doing," Verstappen said after qualifying. "I think luckily it wasn't too bad. With these kind of sprint formats, when you have a FP1 like that, but even if it's like fully dry, it's still sometimes a bit hit and miss, and that makes it always very chaotic. That's why I never really enjoy these kinds of weekends, because you just don't have the time, and then once you do a mistake, you are stuck with it for the rest of the weekend, and I don't think it should be like that."
Verstappen also added that maybe that is what F1 wants. "So for sure, you can do better things with the format, but I guess they implemented that for this particular reason, so there's a bit more chaos and people not getting it right. But with how advanced everything is in this sport, I don’t think that it should be like that, that on a Friday, if you arrive with the wrong setup or you make the wrong call after FP1, that you're stuck with it for the rest of the weekend, which basically also happened for us in Brazil last year. It's just super painful."
Leclerc and Perez agree
Leclerc also believes this format makes the race trickier, especially given that it rained during FP1. "Yes, especially for the race, it's going to be very tricky, because we didn't do any long runs, so also for time management and all of those things, we are just going in the race with a big question mark. It's going to be important to analyse everything very well straight from the get-go on Sunday, try to understand the first few laps, where it's going, where the degradation is going, how it looks like, and then adjust the strategy as quickly as possible."
Perez also underlined that the lack of preparation can make the race more unpredictable. "I think the biggest concern is come Sunday, because we haven't done any high fuel, we don't know how the car is going to behave with the heavy tanks, the ride, how it will be. So it's always a massive concern going into the weekend, basically blind. And, yeah, like Max says, you can get it wrong very easily."