Saturday Sprinting

There may be a shakeup coming to a few of our Saturdays this season as F1 bosses discuss to introduce shorter sprint races in place of qualifying to bring an increase of entertainment to the sport.

F1 have proposed the idea to test sprint races of about 100km, which is about a third the distance of a typical race, at the Canadian, Italian and Brazilian Grand Prix weekends this season.

These sprint races will take place on Saturdays and the results of these races would set the grid for Sundays Grand Prix. Now the biggest question is how would you set the grid for the sprint race? The grid for the sprint races will be set on Friday with qualifying taking place a day earlier and replacing practice 2.

Teams have backed the plan but there are still issues to iron out in certain areas. These issues are mainly about what these races would contribute to the two championships. Discussions will take place to deliberate how many points should be awarded for the sprint race and whether it would mean two 'winners' each weekend or just one. 

Another topic of debate will be the financial, legal and contractual implications of the plan. Many of the teams understand the importance of bringing more fans into the sport in different and innovative ways to ensure they can count on their continued engagement and this is why they are willing to take part in the new weekend concept. Having a trial of the sprint races will help to determine the impact it has on viewership and engagement into the sport. 

This is just one change that is being brought into the 2021 season. F1 has already created changes to the race weekend schedules, Friday practices will reduce from 90 minutes to 60. Another alteration is F1 reverting Sunday’s race start time back to the classic on the hour slot, instead of the 10-past from the past 3 seasons. 

After sprint races being a very successful concept in Formula 2, do you want to see this become a regular part of race weekends in F1 or should it stay in F2? 

Let us know your opinion on our instagram @fs_formulas!

See you on our next Send It Saturday! 

Sach & Soph 

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