Home F1 F1 Azerbaijan GP: Drivers take on new sprint weekend format

F1, F1 Sprint, Azerbaijan GP — JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA - MARCH 19: Fernando Alonso of Spain driving the (14) Aston Martin AMR23 Mercedes and Sergio Perez of Mexico driving the (11) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB19 lead the field into turn one at the start during the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia at Jeddah Corniche Circuit on March 19, 2023 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202303190310 // Usage for editorial use only //

F1 Azerbaijan GP: Drivers take on new sprint weekend format

27/04/2023

F1 drivers speak on what they think of the new sprint weekend format with a standalone Saturday and Sunday being left alone.

With the new F1 sprint format to be in action this weekend in Azerbaijan GP weekend where there will be a truncated qualifying session on Saturday morning for the evening’s race, the drivers have shared their views on this style of running.

Previously, they had FP2 on Saturday morning where they couldn’t do much but now with the smaller qualifying, it makes the F1 sprint event as a standalone race where the Friday qualifying will decide the Sunday grid and Saturday’s race will not affect it.

While the new format is some win among the F1 drivers, but the main feedback is not to make the sprint races as the main format for all of the weekends. Few odd is fine in a long calendar but not more because they still want to retain the main event charm.

Among the host of different opinions where they talked about how they are to approach the weekends and the second F1 qualifying and sprint race, there were some with thoughts on their career as well amid the different gimmicks and formats being used.

Here’s what the F1 drivers said –

Lando Norris: “I think the revised structure for it, I prefer. I don’t want to have a Sprint race every single weekend. I think it’s still important to have what we’ve had for many years. I think that’s what makes F1 exciting and cool. I love just having the Saturday Quali and the Sunday race. But I think every now and then having the Sprint races is good for the fans, good for the people watching. I think it’s exciting to change things every now and a little bit for us. But a better structure of doing that. I think having it separate to Sunday, kind of having Saturday on its own, is a good thing. So yeah, I’m excited, I think it should make for a better weekend altogether.

“Regarding the races, there’s still a budget cap. So you know, you want to damage the car in any way. You don’t do anything silly. Especially for us, when we’re wanting to improve the car as much as possible, the least amount of damage we can cause, the better. But I’m excited. As I said, I think it’s a better format. I prefer it a long way compared to what we had before. So you have more room, more opportunities for everyone. I like the fact that you have two qualifyings. I love the format of practice, qualifying on Friday. So the pressure is definitely higher. But yeah, I enjoy it more. I mean, top eight cars, most likely. Alpine were very, very quick in Australia, too. So I’m expecting it. Maybe there will be some little changes here and there. But the majority will be pretty similar.”

Sergio Perez: “I think we have to remain open. Let’s see how it goes. I just feel like there are places where you can bring this Sprint format. Baku, normally, generally, the racing is great just with the standard format, so probably there are races where we need to be more selective with the races where we need to improve things. But yeah, let’s see. I really don’t have a strong opinion. I think it puts a lot of emphasis to be strong, to have a very solid FP1 and then from that onwards we’ll see.

“Every session becomes really important. But yeah, at the end of the day, I think Sunday is the priority for everyone. I think it’s a balance. I think someone mentioned earlier about the budget cap. None of us want to make any damage to our cars, because that can be very penalising on bringing future upgrades and it can have an impact on your future races. So, I think it’s not like everyone is going to be taking silly risks for a few points. At the end of the day, it’s important to be able to bring the car home and have a good Sunday. So I think it’s not going to change that much.”

Esteban Ocon: “No, I agree with Lando, in the regard that it’s exciting. You know, it’s cool to have more racing, a more exciting weekend, but maybe not every weekend. That would be something to look out for. On the other hand, I think as a driver, it’s great that you go straight into that Qualifying Sprint, that Shootout Qualifying without practice before. Because that could bring some uncertainty. Some drivers are not going to be, you know, awake, they are going to make mistakes, and it’s not going to be the same. So we’ll see.

“That brings opportunities and brings, you know, skills to the driver more importantly, so I look forward to that. It depends on the situation obviously If there isn’t really anything to fight for… But that’s not how we are going into the weekend. We’re going to try to push as far forward as we can. Testing things? Well, you can’t really. If you box, you can’t change the set-up after the first Qualifying. So no, I think keeping on going, getting the knowledge is probably the best thing to do.”

Kevin Magnussen: “Yeah, I agree with most of what’s been said. I mean, it’s more exciting. There’s more stuff happening. Not that a normal weekend is boring in any way but there’s a lot of running that doesn’t count for anything. And having most of the sessions in the weekend counting for something I think is cool. I don’t think you’re going to just pit if you’re not in contention for points, but I think if you’re P9 towards the end of the race and there is an opportunity to attack, but it might be a slightly risky one, you’re going to be more likely to go for it with how it is now. So I think that’s an improvement. It’s not going to change the world.”

Yuki Tsunoda: “Yeah, I agree with the drivers. It’s definitely exciting. Especially Saturday, just when you wake up and have breakfast, and you’re straight into Qualifying, which is like, you have to really wake for Qualifying. So it’s really exciting. And yeah, I can’t wait. But rest of it is same as the drivers and especially like Lando said, we still have a budget cap and lots of things we have to develop through the year. So yeah, still, we have to make the car back home safely but at the same time we are going to be aggressive as much as possible.”

Carlos Sainz: “Saturday… so what do we have in Saturday! We have the Shootout Quali. That will be difficult, especially waking up in the morning and going straight into Q1. That will be like… I need to do a good warm up, maybe a cold shower, make sure I’m really woken up for pushing flat-out in one of these cars, bumpy cars on the straight first thing in the morning. I’ll make sure I do my morning routine well because it will be intense. And then the Sprint Quali – still called Sprint Quali, yeah? I think it’s going to be fun. The Sprint, sorry. 17 laps. Exciting, I think. More racing.

“More important laps in the weekend, obviously tougher, both mentally and physically for us – but if it makes the fans happy and the media happy and makes the product better, we will do it. I still don’t think it will be like we need to or be in it for us, it will be still important laps, important points for the championship. Important learning for the main race so I don’t think an F1 driver will change massively the approach to the start, to the fighting. We will still approach it as a normal race and I’m trying to think something else to tell you but that’s it. I don’t think it will change our approach much.”

Valtteri Bottas: “I do. I like the fact that it’s straight into action – just one practice but it becomes obviously more and more valuable and everyday has a session that really, really matters. Saturday is a proper day – but as Carlos said, it’s definitely more demanding mentally. Maybe even physically. Because here you need to be switched on for the whole weekend. You can’t just you know, take the Friday is in the normal practice day, but I think it’s good. As for the race, I think it’s like, for example, if I would be on the last laps in ninth position, which is just outside of the points in the sprint, then definitely you go for it.

“Obviously, if you break your car or something, then that could have consequences for Sunday. But then on another case, there’s not a huge difference, but I think a welcome one. So at least you know that you can try and if you’re just on the edge of the points. And to your question, you’re like 15^th or something, you still go for it, it’s the nature of us. You don’t give up and in this sport you never know what happens so you go ‘till the end.”

Lance Stroll: “Yeah, I think it’s exciting for everybody, keeps everyone on their toes all weekend. Like the guys have said, there’s not much time to get into the groove and get the car in a happy place, where you want it. So I think it’s fun. It’s going to be exciting for the fans too, which is great. For the race situation, I think you’d never know what happens. You could be 14^th or 15^th, and two laps to go, three laps to go, the safety car comes out and something like that and that can give you an opportunity to fit new tyres, whatever, and score points. So I don’t think that changes the mindset as a driver. Just never give up ‘till the chequered flag.”

Alexander Albon: “Yeah, especially for midfield teams there’s a bit more going on. And I think on Friday, there’s maybe some teams that won’t get it perfect and that’s good for us. I think it creates opportunity for some others to get on the pace early and I think we welcome that. It’s a good change from the original Sprint race format, where obviously it would sometimes filter out the differences in qualifying. This is a good way to do it. For the race, I think everyone’s kind of said what is the feeling, basically. The only thing I’d add is that there are four teams now that kind of regularly score points, and it’s the top eight that do score points in the sprint race, so it’s going to be one of those situations where I think you’re going to get quite a repetitive order in that sprint race: the same people scoring points.

“Maybe, if anything, I think they’re racing each other anyway but there is a… I think there is that kind of divide between the midfield and the top end. Already, in the normal races, most of the positions are fought… ninth and tenth. I think it’s been a big battle in the midfield – a good one – and that’s been those positions and of course, you capitalise when there’s the DNF or to get eighth or seventh, let’s say, whereas now we need a bit more than that. I think it’s going to be tricky to get into the points for a sprint race.”

Lewis Hamilton: “I don’t think it makes really a lot of difference now. Obviously before, where you finished in the sprint was where you obviously qualified for the race. Now it is a practice session but there are points at the end of it, I guess. I don’t think we’ll be going more out than we normally have done in the past. What I do think is – and I think it’s great that we are doing these different format weekends – but there’s a lot of time where we could do more running. And I know we always talk about what’s the best in terms of environment and all those sorts of things but I don’t know if it’d be better for the fans but there’s a lot of… there’s a huge break between these sessions and we could be doing more running or whatever it may be. If that was better for the fans, for example, so maybe we’ll look into that in the future.”

Max Verstappen: “I think everybody knows my opinion. But just looking at the weekend, it will be more chaotic to get everything right. There is of course little bit more risk involved now with qualifying and stuff but I think when you look at the sprint race itself, I think the risk will be the same because you don’t want to potentially damage the car which then also influences the development of the car and I would rather lose one point than lose development. I think everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but sometimes, of course, what I think is right some people don’t agree with, but I just think as a pure racer, what is right. When you’re running a business, it’s sometimes different what is right. I guess it’s just a difference in opinion.

“I always said that even if there won’t be any more sprint races, if we keep expanding the calendar and the whole weekend is that long, at one point you question yourself: is it worth it? I do like racing. I do like winning. I know that, of course, there is the salary and everything, and you have a good life. But is it actually a good life? I think sometimes you get to a point in your career where maybe you want to do other stuff. I have the contract until the end of 2028 and then we’ll review again, but I do feel that if it’s getting at one point too much, then it’s time for a change.

“Probably F1 looks at it from a business point of view. I understand the sprint races, they probably add a bit more excitement, but then I look at it from the racing point of view. And I’m like, ‘well normally, when you then do the sprint races, lap one is exciting, a few shunts here and there, damage, blah, blah, blah, and safety car, a bit more excitement. But then throughout the race, you get quite a clear picture of what is happening, and who is the quickest, so then you also have quite a clear view on what’s going to happen the next day. That probably takes a bit the shine away from the main event, which I think always should be the special event.”

Fernando Alonso: “When I was out of the sport those two years, I was not watching the practice. They were too long and boring. So I see the point of making something different on the weekend. We have to embrace that and help F1 and hopefully the fans will give us a good feedback. But it is more stressful, especially the Saturday. Friday, we are used to this new format where we only have one practice. But the really different thing now is Saturday. Even in the past, doing one qualifying on Friday and Saturday, like in 2004 or 2006 or whenever, we had always practice before qualifying. Now, we have breakfast, we go in the car, we tighten the belts and we are in Q1. This is completely new. It is stressful, for sure, and more difficult for the drivers.”

Charles Leclerc: “I prefer it, I don’t want it to become the main format in the future but I think few weekends like this per year is quite good. Lets see if it confirms that the show would be better on track but I think it will be better.”

Pierre Gasly: “Personally, I am really excited about it. I feel there are like more meaningful sessions, so everytime you jumping in the car, you are sort of like focussed and make it count everytime. You are doing laps, so I think it will be interesting to see what you get out of it. In terms of sprint format, I prefer that one where Saturday is standalone without impacting the Sunday race and you get an extra qualifying which is always fun. I am looking forward to it but just it will be a bit tricky with the tyres, I do feel like we are missing one set to make it easier for everyone, we might see a bit of compromises and different approach to the weekend but as I said, in terms of format, it is going to be great.”