Source: Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team
When sprint formats were introduced in 2021, I was not a fan of them at all.
Sprint races felt like they took away from the excitement of the main race. For one, the cars would be locked into parc fermé as soon as qualifying took place on Friday, meaning you couldn't change much in the setup for the sprint or the main race after that. This meant whatever you saw in the sprint race (both good and bad), there would likely be not much different to the main race.
If there was a good sprint race, that was great for the main race. But if the sprint race was far from a good race, it made me feel the race would surely be just as disappointing to watch.
It was not the only reason for my resistance to this new format. I questioned on how meaningful an additional race would be other than for a few points for the drivers. Would it really bring more attendance on a Saturday? Would it have an effect on attendance for the main race? What was wrong with the traiditional weekend format?
These feelings never subsided in 2022 or 2023 either, when they continued to deploy sprint weekends for a number of the races in each respective year. However, the 2024 edition of the sprint weekend might have changed my mind and, actually, helped make for an exciting race weekend as a result.
F1 and the FIA clearly learned lessons over the past three years and have made steps to vastly improve how these sessions are ran. But why do I think these are much better? Let's go through it!
What Has Changed Since Last Year?
The structure of F1's sprint weekend formats has undergone changes between 2023 and 2024, which I have detailed below:
From this comparison, you might notice two key differences between this year and last year.
Firstly, qualifying for the main race will now take place after the sprint race on Saturday as opposed to taking place on the Friday before the sprint race. For me, this structure flows much better than previously, with all of the sprint events taking place first before all the main race events rather than the mix we had in 2023. It also adds pressure on the drivers and teams for the sprint race, as if they damage to their car in a crash or reliability issues, they will have a limited window to make the fixes necessary before qualifying. Though in theory this could result in drivers being more cautious for the sprint race, we saw evidence in the Chinese Grand Prix teams and drivers will race just as hard as they would on a Sunday.
The second key difference between the two years is parc fermé being temporarily lifted after the sprint race, giving teams opportunities to reflect on the data gathered in the sprint and make any changes to the setup from what they've learned. This helps resolve one of my big reservations with the sprint format, that being the sprint races risk spoiling what we expect from the main race.
Now with this small change, it means we could see teams making changes that may help or hinder their performance in the main race. A good example of this difference was with Lewis Hamilton, who performed really well in a mixed qualifying to start the race from second, and would go on to holding that for the sprint race. The team then made changes to the car that resulted in performance being lost, and Lewis qualified a mere eighteenth. He would then finish ninth for the race on Sunday, but far from the pace seeing in the Sprint Race. This example goes to show that the sprint race will not guarantee that will be the running order for the main race, bringing back that element of unpredictability during the Grand Prix weekend.
Should Sprint Qualifying Replace the Current Format Altogether?
I've spoken really positively about the changes for the 2024 Sprint weekend format, and we have five more races this year to see more of it. The question is, are we at a stage where sprint qualifying could take place in more races per season, or could it replace the traditional racing weekend format altogether?
If you asked me anytime within the last three years, my answer would have been an immediate no as I was not impressed with the format and didn't feel it positively contributed to the racing weekend. With this new format, I would definitely be more confident with it if F1 and the FIA decided to make this the new weekend structure going forward. To be honest, I personally like the standard format with the sprint weekends for around five to six races a season and would prefer that.
Whilst more racing would be enticing to fans and spectators of the sport, will drivers' be as incentivised to push flat out and risk damage or mistakes if it will impact the actual race? As we saw from China, this could certainly be far from the truth. But not every driver was racing as hard as Fernando Alonso or Carlos Sainz, and depending on the circumstances, they may not be as agressive in the future. Sometimes, leaving the action towards the main race itself might be better so drivers don't feel like they need to be as reserved. After all, the big rewards come from Sundays!
But I'm definitely more open to these new formats now than I was before, and they are a lot more entertaining as well. If F1 and the FIA can continue to review and improve on this format, learning lessons and tweaking it, then I could see the Sprint Weekends becoming the new norm. But time will tell where we go with this...