After the first four F1 Sprint weekends this season, I can’t see why F1 would continue running them in 2025 and beyond. It’s about the only thing Max Verstappen and I see eye-to-eye on. There are still two more Sprint weekends ahead of us, but I have seen enough to understand that they aren’t working. Let’s dive in and see if I can show you why the FIA needs to change.

What is F1 Sprint Weekend?

In an effort to make Friday more appealing to the F1 weekend, the FIA is testing Sprint races on saturday. Attendance and TV coverage is always much lower on Fridays and the FIA is looking to spice them up. Previously the F1 weekend was simple. 2 practice sessions on Friday, 1 more on Saturday followed by Qualifying, then the race on Sunday. This new system being tested definitely complicates the weekend quite a bit. The new sprint weekend format is as follows: 1 Practice Session and Grand Prix Qualifying on Friday, then 1 Sprint Race Qualifying and the Sprint Race on Saturday, followed by the Grand Prix on Sunday. Basically, Saturday becomes standalone to the rest of the weekend in that its outcome has no effect on the race sunday. The 2023 testing period is be a total of 6 sprint weekends in the 2023 season, 4 having which have happened already with 2 remaining at the US and Brazilian Grand Prixes. At the moment, it sounds like there will be another 6 following this same format in 2024, but there have been no confirmations officially. 

Why it is not working?

There are one glaring reason why I believe the sprint format doesn’t work. The FIA has been so focused on making Friday more profitable that they forgot to not ruin Saturday. This new format renders Saturday irrelevant instead of Friday. The sprint race is basically a stand-alone exhibition race now. There is sprint qualifying and the sprint race all the same day with no outcome on the grand prix on Sunday. Without qualifying for the race on the line, it’s a bit anticlimactic. And yes, there are championship points on the line, but they are minimal. With such limited upside for the drivers, there is no sense of urgency for the team. Additionally, with the Sprint race proximity being so close to the actual race, there is no reason to push hard to finish in the points. The upside is you may score points, but the downside is that you may push too hard and can crash. I’m not saying that the drivers are not racing, but the risk/reward is minimal for the sprint race and thus leads to a montinous saturday. The shortened races also generally lead to the same strategy across the grid. No teams are taking risks since there is minimal reward and not a lot of time for the race to unfold as it does in a grand prix. Ultimately, the racing in the sprints has become fairly boring and when it isnt, there is no effect on the race or really the championship. You could argue that in 2021 Lewis and Max were separated by a few points, but both drivers had multiple DNFs that year which would have resolved that issue. Generally speaking, the sprint races are not enough to keep me interested and excited on sprint saturday. Especially when said boring racing is crowning the Formula 1 World Champion on a Saturday. In my opinion, that ruined the whole weekend for me as the race no longer mattered from a Driver’s Championship perspective.

How to improve the Sprint Weekend?

I would change one thing to improve the racing during the sprint. Make the sprint race a reverse grid start. A reverse grid start means that the sprint qualifying order is flipped so first in qualifying is starts last in the sprint. Keep friday qualifying setting up the grand prix start order as normal. Wiith the saturday sprint grid reversed, the faster drivers have to push hard to get points. Now, you may think that the issues about lack of motivation previously stated are still there. I can’t argue that, but what I can argue is that now the faster drivers really have to earn it if they want points. If they choose not to or are too far back, then the slower teams will score points. Ultimately, you will get better on track action with more passing or a more closely pack championship with the lower teams getting more points. I think either way you can’t lose. This change would make it harder for the top teams on saturday only, but not undoable by any means. 

One of the most underrated things about the 2023 season is just how close all of the teams are if you remove Red Bull. Red Bull is operating on another level, reminiscent of the last years with Mercedes, but the rest of the teams are within a fairly close margin. While I am not a Red Bull fan by any means, their success should not be punished. The FIA needs to help raise the other teams toward their level, not hinder the top team. At the time of writing this, there are only 107 points separating second place and 5th place. Even seventh, eighth, and ninth are only separated by 11 points. Keeping these teams closely pitted against each other is ultimately the goal of the FIA. If the racing is good, then the product is good. If the product is good, then the fans will come in droves.