Mick Schumacher talks about the difference he felt between F1 Sprint Qualifying and the F2 Sprint Race, while adding that he would prefer limited races with Saturday race.
As we all know, last weekend F1 took a leap into the unknown. It held its first ever Sprint qualifying and overall, it was a success. It created a great spectacle for the fans and the teams and drivers managed this new weekend format well. Not many has been outspoken against it and there has been an air of open mindedness throughout the paddock as the sport is no doubt in the midst of a transitional period.
Talking about it, Haas’ Schumacher felt the format to be a good trial. “It’s interesting its different to what we had before,” he said to media including FormulaRapida.net. “It makes it nicer for the fans obviously they get to see racing on Saturday and on Sunday.” The fans are a great beneficiary of this new format as they get to see high profile action across all three days as opposed to just normal qualifying and the race.
Schumacher, however, like many other drivers on the grid noted, the format cannot be used at all events, but only handful. “To be fair think that I wouldn’t foresee F1 doing this each event, it’s going to be more like a special event maybe 3 or 4 races a year but I don’t see them doing it at every event,” he said.
“At times it is cool, I would prefer having the normal schedule but then again some races can be made special like in that way.” Ross Brawn recently hinted at the Grand Slam format that Tennis use which is three or four times a year and the Sprint Qualifying can be utilised in a similar manner.
The one comparison that Schumacher could do of the F1 Sprint Qualifying a.k.a race, was with F2’s sprint race. In fact, there’s a number of current drivers who have now experienced an F2 sprint as well as this F1 sprint now. Along with the German, his teammate Nikita Mazepin and Yuki Tsunoda have recent experience of the junior formaula’s sprint which may have helped them.
Whereas the likes of Nickolas Latifi, Lando Norris and Charles Lelcerc have experience from a few years back from their time in F2. So how do they compare? “Well, it’s a lot shorter,” said Schumacher when asked by FormulaRapida.net. This is likely because F2 cars are better suited to a sprint scenario as opposed to F1 cars as the German eluded to.
“These cars at the moment they are very hard to follow which will hopefully improve next year and make things more interesting when cars will be able to follow closer and the battling will be more in one pack than spread in different packs,” said Schumacher.
The dirty air is starting to become a broken record these days but its why the F2 sprint can work for longer and it’s what the new regulation is for 2022 are designed to solve as much as possible. Overall, it’s clear to see that Schumacher is more than open to the idea, but perhaps on a more special occasion basis as opposed to regularly and maybe it’s a format better suited to the 2022 cars.
The story was written by Ollie Pattas
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