Verstappen pleads for rule change, points to Hamilton's disqualification

In an interview with the German magazine, the 26-year-old Dutchman says he understands the business side of it. The sprint races bring in more money for Liberty Media and so Formula 1's owner has no plans to scrap the short races over about 100 kilometres, despite criticism from drivers.

Instead, they are looking at how to make it better in the future. In any case, Verstappen does have a wish list. He argues that sprint racing in its current form takes away the magic of the Grand Prix on Sunday. Because a sprint race is held a day before, the teams and fans already know everything about tyre degradation, for example. It takes away the excitement, according to Verstappen.

Parc fermé bothers Verstappen

Another big issue is that Parc Fermé already kicks in after the first free practice and thus applies for the rest of the weekend. Virtually nothing more can be changed to the set-up, and the Red Bull driver would like to see that changed. "If you get it wrong, you are stuck with that set-up for the rest of the weekend," he said. "That happened to us last year in Brazil. This year we had a couple of good sprint weekends. Still, I was not completely satisfied."

As an example, Verstappen mentions the Austin Grand Prix. On Friday, all the teams had to set the ride height for the rest of the weekend, and then after the sprint race, it turned out that the floor was getting a lot more wear than expected. The result? A disqualification for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on Sunday. "Mercedes and Ferrari certainly didn't set their cars too low on purpose. But once you are on the wrong track, you cannot adjust. You can only react with tyre pressure. And if the tyre pressure is high, you are completely lost. That's annoying."

"If you want to keep sprints, from my point of view, you have to make changes." Would a 'single-lap' sprint qualifying be something for Formula 1? "That would be very risky. I already don't like the current format with medium-medium-soft. You already don't know what to do. One fast lap? Or fast, slow, fast? Why do we need all these weird things? Even I wonder what the rules are now. I feel lost. It's like a circus."

Changes imminent

In Abu Dhabi, the F1 Commission agreed to change the sprint format. The consensus is that sprint events should be better separated from the Grand Prix sessions. A reversed grid - where drivers start in reverse World Championship order - or a modified timetable is being considered. One possible scenario is a sprint qualifying session on Friday afternoon, followed by qualifying for the Grand Prix on Saturday morning and, finally, the sprint race on Saturday afternoon. A concrete proposal for this revamped format will be presented to the teams at the first meeting of the F1 Commission in 2024.