F1 has tweaked its sprint race gimmick for F1 2023 with the introduction of a second qualifyi✨ng session, replacing the tedious FP2 session on Saturday morni🍸ng.

This means that Satꩲurday is completely standalone from the rest of the weekend, with the result of the sprint no longer having an impact on Sunday.

It now means all three days of running will be meaningful as teams have 💫just 60 minutes to get their cars ready for conventional qualifyi🦋ng on Friday.

All the drivers present in the FIA press conference ahead of this weekend’s 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix were asked for their thoughts on the new format.

• F1 sprinꦉt race: What are the rules? What is the new 2023 formaꦦt?

Here’s what they had to say…

Lewis Hamilton

“Absolutely, It will be tough for everybody,” he saidﷺ. “But🦂 we’re all in the same boat. What a track to do it at - where overtaking is possible. 

“We always have great races here. It is definitely difficult to do 20 laps then straight into qualifyi🌠ng.”

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Carlos Sainz

“Thꦛe shootout q🔥uali will be difficult, especially waking up in the morning and going straight into Q1,” Sainz explained. 

“I need to do a good warm-up, mega cold shower, make sure I’m really woken up for pushing flat out in one ꦫof these cars, bumpy cars on the straight, first thing in the morning – it will be intense.

“Then the sprint, 17 laps... It’s exciting. I think more racing, more important laps in the weekend, obviously it’s tougher both mentally and physically for u💦s, but if it makes theꦰ fans happy, and the media happy, and makes the product better, we will do it.”

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Valtteri Bottas

“Saturday will be a proper day,” Bottas commented. “But more demanding mentally, even physically. You need to be swit🎶ched on all weekend. But, I think it’s good.”

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lando Norris

“I would expect so,” he added. “There’s still the budget cap, you don’t want to damage the car in any way, you don’t want to do anything silly. Especially for us, when we’re wanting t🎉o improve the car as much as possible, the least amount of damage that we can cause the better. But I’m excited.

“I think it’s a better format, I prefer it a long way comparing to what we had before. More room, more oppor♐tunities for everyone. I like the fact you have two qualifyings, I love the format of practice and qualifying on Friday. The pressure is definitely higher, but I enjoy it more.”

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Esteban Ocon

“It’s exciting,” Ocon said. “It’s cool to hav🍷e more racing, a more exciting weekend – but maybe not every weekend. That will be something to look out for. On the other hand, I think as a driver, it’s great that you got straight into that Sprint Shoo൩tout qualifying without practice before.

“It could bring some uncertainty, some drivers that are not going to be awake, that are going to make mistakes, and it’s not going to be the same. We’ll see. That brings opportunities and brings skills to the driver, more imp🅠ortantly, ๊so I look forward to that.”

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Kevin Magnussen

“It’s more exciting, there’s more stuff happening,” he concluded. “Not꧑ 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 be counting for something I think is ꩵcool.”