F1 News
New sprint format doesn't appeal to Verstappen: 'Not more exciting'
- Ludo van Denderen
The new season is about to start, a year in which the regulations have remained almost the same. However, there is a change in the sprint format. Starting with the first sprint race in China, the sequence of sessions has changed compared to a year ago: on Friday, from now on, there is free practice, followed by the sprint shootout. Saturday later starts with the sprint race, followed by qualifying for the Grand Prix. On the final day, of course, is the Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen is known not to favour sprint weekends. Instead, the Dutchman prefers the traditional format; with three free practice sessions, a qualifying session and a Grand Prix. His stance on sprints will not change anytime soon, Verstappen revealed in Bahrain.
Verstappen has also seen plus points
"It's a better format, I would say, in terms of how you approach the weekend, but I don't get more excited about the race" Verstappen stated. "But at least I think it's better that, you're still able to change the car for the weekend, and a bit more of a logic to it in terms of how you have the sessions and how it is in the race weekend."
Pierre Gasly could largely agree with his former teammate's words. "I agree the format is better," said the Alpine driver. "Just from, I will say, mainly the fact that we've got a bunch of very smart engineers here, so when you basically, last year, after FP1 you're not able to change anything on the car. So all the smart people actually can't have an input on the car performance over the whole weekend. So I think it's a lot better for them; they'll be a lot more busy analysing and trying to always develop the car."