F1 News
Brundle agrees with Verstappen: 'Sprint weekends need a shake-up'
- Ludo van Denderen
Max Verstappen also won the sprint race in Brazil, but again did not make him a supporter of the format. More and more drivers, meanwhile, are backing the triple world champion's words, such as Sergio Perez. Martin Brundle, the Sky Sports pundit, does not want to abolish sprint weekends immediately, but changes must be made.
A big problem, the former F1 driver feels, is that qualifying for the Grand Prix is already on Friday, and the momentum of the main race is completely broken with a Sprint Shootout and the sprint race. These will be completed on Saturday. "The chronology of the Sprint events is confusing, with the disconnect between Friday qualifying and Sunday race, and the different session formats and tyre allocations. Sprint events have an allocation of 12 sets of dry tyres instead of 13, but fewer sets have to be handed back over the event."
'Tyre regulations also need to change'
For sprint weekends, teams will get 12 sets of dry tyres instead of the usual 13. But with fewer tyres and more sessions that are about something, teams need a different approach to how they handle their tyres, Brundle believes. Especially when at a circuit like Interlagos, the hard tyre won't work (and thus won't be used). In fact, Brundle does not understand why these tyre rules were chosen.
All in all, his assessment of sprint racing in its current form is not positive. "I see a lot of social media traffic, as well as talking with fans, friends, and media, where many say they don't like Sprint format at all. Despite being a pure racer and having won many of them, Verstappen says the same," the pundit said.
At the same time, Brundle realises that a sprint race attracts more TV viewers than an average second free practice. And in Formula 1, commerce rules. Still, Brundle says: "The Sprints simply must be more entertaining trackside too for those splashing their hard-earned cash."