F1’s sprint weekend format returned for the first time in 2022 at last weekend’s Emilia Roma𒁃gna Gr🍌and Prix.

The format sees qualifying moved to Friday in place of practice in the afternoon, while a shorter, 100km sprint race takes♏ place on Saturday with the re♌sult determining the grid for Sunday’s grand prix. 

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The format will be run at three grands pꩵrix this season (Imola, Austria and Brazil) but there are plans for this to be doubled to six race weekends for ✃2023. 

With the sprint being used to determine the grid for the grand prix, there’s an arguᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚment that drivers aren’t taking as♒ many risks and thus reducing the spectacle for fans.

In the latest episode of ltxcn.top’s F1 podcast, Brundle explained w෴hy making the spri🐻nt a standalone event would improve the show.

💝“The drivers are calling for those events to be more standalone rather than actually setting the grid for grand prix Sunday and that’s a v♏ery interesting concept,” Brundle said. “What we basically end up with then is a more of an F2 event. They clearly like the concept, they want to go racing. 

“From a drivers’ perspective and I think we saw ཧthis over that battle at the front 𒐪of the field, drivers must be driving with the race on Sunday in the back of their minds and that can’t be that enjoyable from inside the cockpit to want to make the move, to want to go charging through, to want to defend hard and show the Tifosi what you’re made of if you’re Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari but always knowing that if you overstep, you’ve got a long grand prix Sunday to think about it starting at the back of the field. 

“I would really be supportive of the sprint race be🏅coming its own thing, becoming its own entity d🅺elivering points, perhaps all the way down the field. That would be exciting for me.”

Legendary F1 commentator Ben Edwards feels F1 will be put under pressure to introduce furt🔯her sprint weekends due to the likely benefits th✨ey would have on TV viewing figures.

“That might be an interesting option to go down that route and separating the two pieces might work very well,” Edwards added. “The trouble is, I just imagine the TV viewing numbers are going to go up with people watching both Saturday and Sunday because they’re watching races on two days and t꧒hat’s going to put pressure on F1 to carry on that sort of thing rather than back off, although some of the teams will be against it.&nb🌳sp;

“This is going to be an ongoing𝓰 discussion going forwa🌟rd.”

Does the sprint race detract from the F1 Grand Prix?

A wet-affected qualifying on Friday at Im🌱ola༺ left Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz out of position on the grid. 

The ♛sprint on Saturday allowed the pair to cut their way through the field, giving us some great wheel-to-wheღel action.

Similarly, Charles Leclerc’s good start 🐲from second on the grid handed him the lead int🦋o Turn 1.

Lecleꦑrc and Max Verstappen duel💖led for the sprint race victory with the reigning F1 champion coming out on top.

Edwards questioned whether having a sprint rac🃏e made for a less dramatic grand𒁃 prix.

“Wel🐽l it did, of course, actually the sprint race was more entertaining in some ways than the grand prix because you had people moving up, Edwards explained. “The danger is when you have a qualifying like you had on Friday afternoon as we did, a bit predictable and aꦚ few people out of position, particularly Carlos, Sergio. 

“So that made the sprint race q🌌uite exciting because those guys had to fight their way up and we had a battle for the lead. The trouble was that everyone was in p🍌osition and so we didn’t quite end up with that same battle that we might have enjoyed in the grand prix in the early stages. Mind you, of course, we had some dramas, we lost Sainz, we lost Ricciardo in the grand prix itself and I think that was a bit of a downer. 

“There are a lot of positives by having a sprint race but ther𒁃e are some negatives as well. We did lose out I think a little bit in the grand prix itself in terms of some of the excitement𝐆.”

Download and listen to Episode 7 now at the following links…