For the first time in F1’s history, a grand prix will feature a sprint race as the world championship finally gets t⛄he chance to showcase its new weekend format.

It is the latest experiment conducted by F1 in an attempt to spice-up the weekend and make the show morಞe interesting and unpredictable.

Dubbed ‘sprint qualifying’, the format is set to be trialled at three e꧂vents across the 2021 season starting at Silverstone this weekend and, if successful, it could become a fixture at selected weekends in the future.

What’s the format and how will it work?

The shake-up to the British Grand Prix weekend will see a sprint race run over 100km - the equivalent of 17 laps of the Silverstonꦚe Circuit - take place on Saturday afternoon.

Friday at Silverstone will look very different to normal, with a one-hour open💃ing practice session followed by qualifyinඣg late in the afternoon.

Qualifying will follow the traditional f💯ormat that features Q1, Q2, and Q3 but it will set the grid fo🌸r Saturday’s sprint race, rather than the grand prix itself.

Five sets of Pirelli’s soft tyre will be made available during qualifying but there will be no obligation to start the grand prix on the tyre with which th𝔉e fastest time was set in Q2.

A second hour of practice will then take place on Saturday morning before the sprint qual💯ifying 🍨race gets underway at 4.30pm local time.

The sprint race is scheduled to last around half an hour and will define the starting order ꧒for Sundayไ’s showpiece event, the British Grand Prix.

Drivers will have a free choice of🥀 tyres for the sprint race and there will be no obligatory pit stop. Up to six sets of intermediates and three sets of full wets will be provided by Pirelli in the event of wet weather conditions.

Du🌜e to the sprint qualifying race running to about one-third of the distance of a grand prix, only the top three finishers will receive points. Three points will be on offer for first place, two for second and one for third.

The winner of the sprint race will also be officially credited with pole ꧅position for the grand prix, rather𓆉 than the driver who ends up fastest in qualifying.

To avoid devaluing the grand prix itself, the sprint qualifying event will have a more mod🔜est grid procedure and there will be no post-race podium ceremony, while the national anthem will also 🎀be reserved for Sunday.

🥃The regulations for the grand prix remain unaltered, apart from every driver getting a free tyre choice for the ra✱ce start.

What are the teams expecting?

Th﷽ere is uncertainty about what type of spectacle the sprint race will produce.

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton highlighted early concerns and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:predicted the♉ race will be “a train” due t🌃o drivers taking it conservatively and being unwill🐭ing to take risks that could destroy their grand prix prospects.

H🦄owever, F1 chiefs remain confident the sprint race will encourage aggressive, exciting action and lead to flat-out, relentless competition.

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner believe♌s the sprint qualifying format can be judged a success “if the fans like it” but said he will be te𓂃lling his drivers to “keep their noses clean”.

“I am looking forward to it because 💃it’s something new and something new always gives opportunity and hopefully we can be a part of that,” he said.

"I think the success will be if the f⭕ans like it. At the moment I think it’s a good format but if there’s something we🧔 can enhance, and the fans embrace it, that would be good and then I would say let’s do more of it.

"I think for sure the drivers will race hard because in qualifying ev๊eryone races hard and this is like a sprint race which defines the qualifying position💟s.

"On Sunday, when points are at stake, you want to be in the best position to start the race as you can. From our side, this year it’s all ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚabout learning so running the race, having a few more race starts during the year beca𒁏use of sprint qualifying format will be an advantage next year.

"On the sprint💞, I will tell them to keep their noses c𒉰lean and keep the cars on the track."

Meanwhile, Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto reckons the revamped weekend schedule co🐟uld lead to teams facing a set-up “mess” due to parc ferme rules.

Parc ferme conditions - where teams are no longer to make major changes to theꦬir cars - will be introduced from the start of the Friday qualifying session. This means teams will only have one hour of practice running to work out the best set-up for the rest of the weekend.

Pirelli’s new rear tyre construction will also make its race debut at Silverstone, giving teams another🔥 potential headache to get on top of during the weekend.

“We have got a new tyre specification at Silverstone, which we tested in Austria, but most of the teams need some more experience🎐 on it,” Binotto said.

“And there will be ver൩y little time for it becau🌠se we’ve only got the Friday morning [practice session] before going into qualifying, so you are really going straight into qualifying with the new spec.

“It’s a new format, there is ♓very little experience because it is parc ferme from Friday afternoon onwards and that’s really exciting. It could be excitin🦄g.

“I think there may be some mess because set-ups will no▨t be optimised due to lack of experiences on the tyres🔜, so I think there may be a great race weekend in that respect.”