F1 News
The sprint races are announced: here's what's changing in the format!
- Toby McLuskie
With the announcement of the six sprint races, the locations at which Formula 1 will race twice on weekends in 2024 are known. What the sprint weekend format will be is not yet officially known. That changes are coming is a certainty. Auto, Motor und Sport says it knows what is in the pipeline.
According to the German magazine, it is at least certain that sessions will be shuffled. Last season, a sprint weekend included free practice first, followed by qualifying for Sunday's Grand Prix. Saturdays were all about the Sprint; with a special (shortened) qualifying session and later in the day the sprint race.
In 2024, after the single free practice session would be followed by the Sprint Shootout (qualifying for the sprint race). Saturday morning will then be dominated by the sprint race, followed by qualifying for the Grand Prix in the afternoon hours. Formula 1 thinks it has a logical structure for the weekend this way. Incidentally, it has not yet been decided whether the parc fermé rules will come into effect after the Sprint Shootout, or only after qualifying.
Reverse grid or not?
For a long time, there was talk of starting the sprint race on the 'reverse grid' principle. This means that the first ten in the Sprint Shootout would start the sprint race in reverse order: the fastest driver in the Shootout would then start tenth, the number two ninth, et cetera. Since it would then be pointless to try to be the fastest, the idea was to reward the winner of the Shootout with eight points, the number two with seven and so on.
The reverse grid idea has not been completely shot down, but the teams are by no means keen on it. In any case, it does not seem to be coming to pass in 2024.