F1 News
Sprint format shaken up again? 'Have spoken to Domenicali'
The final sprint shootout and final sprint race of the season are behind us. The format of the sprint weekends was changed early this season, but Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff told Sky Sports that the teams are already in talks again with Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali for another change to the format.
Currently, there is free practice on Friday, followed by qualifying for the main race. Then on Saturday, there is a sprint shootout, a shortened qualifying session for the sprint race, which will be run later that day. On Sunday, the race weekend concludes with the main race.
Changes to sprint format in F1
According to Wolff, talks are now already underway about a new change to the sprint weekend format. According to him, the sprint weekend should look like this: "You do the sprint shootout [on Friday] and then the second qualifying for the race, which would be Saturday, two o'clock is the time we know. And it would create maybe less confusion."
Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough agrees with Wolff regarding the confusion: "It needs tweaking a bit more because even my dad, who's quite an understander and follower of Formula One, sometimes says to me, so just remind me, is it qualifying on Friday for the main race? I just think if somebody at that level is having questions, the fans are going to get confused."