F1 News
Sprint racing disadvantage for small teams: 'Heroic performances negated'
- GPblog.com
In 2021, we will see three race weekends with a sprint race on Saturday in Formula 1. The sport is trying something new to see if the format can be done differently. Will Buxton says in his latest video know that he is not the biggest fan of this idea.
Not everyone is a fan of sprint races
Actually, we already knew for a long time, but this week it was made official that in 2021 a sprint race will be held during three weekends. Qualifying will be moved to Friday, and there will only be two practice sessions. One before qualifying and one before the sprint race. The main race will be held on Sunday.
"Controversial news this week", Buxton opens his video already promising. "I have my reservations about it. One good thing that there is less practice and in theory more jeopardy. But at the moment the sprint race just feels to me like a 100-kilometre extension of the Grand Prix on Sunday," says the Formula1.com presenter.
New rules in F1
"The heroics in qualifying, for example, George Russell finding himself in P11 or P12. A Mercedes who find themselves out of position potentially like Bottas in Imola who found himself in 8th. This will all be resolved by the end of the sprint race. The interchangeable nature of the grid created by qualifying has the potential to be nullified by this," he added.
''It's good that F1 is trying something. It's better that they try something rather than saying we don't like that. However, I would have preferred them to test two or three formats, to see which one works best. Hopefully, though, the rules from 2022 will ensure that we don't need this kind of change at all because the product will be good enough and strong enough that we won't even need to mess with qualifying," Buxton concluded.