Last weekend in Azerbaijan, Sergio Perez, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc were on the podium twice: once after the sprint race on Saturday and once after the actual GP on Sunday. For Max Verstappen that was one time too many.
The Dutch world champion is a cool lover of the sprint race. “Just delete it,” said Verstappen in Baku. “This isn’t really racing, it’s more like a lottery and it’s just for show. We need to get back to basics and not try to artificially create a spectacle.”
The sprint race has been in a new format since this year. It no longer provides the starting grid for the GP. Now you have free practice on Friday and qualifying for the GP. On Saturday there are the qualifications for the sprint race in the morning and the sprint race itself in the afternoon. And then the actual GP follows on Sunday.
Verstappen finds an ally in Gert Vermersch, F1 commentator at Play Sports. “I’m a bit of a purist,” says Vermersch in our podcast De Tribune. “They actually highlighted it that Saturday and made it a separate event.”
“The hope was that it would make for more spectacle, but it’s just the opposite. No driver or team is going to take risks and jeopardize Sunday’s race through damage to the car or a punishment. In Baku, just like last year, it was processional riding in the sprint race.”
“Moreover, the gap between qualifying on Friday and the GP on Sunday is too big. The tension of the weekend is not right. The only good thing about this system is that there is only one free practice.”
Vermersch also comes up with a proposal. “The ideal F1 weekend for me consists of two days. On Saturday you have 1 free practice to set up the car and qualifying, and on Sunday the race.” Verstappen will certainly agree with that.
The sprint race in Baku was the first of the year, but there are 5 more to follow. There will also be sprints in Austria, Belgium, the United States, Qatar and Brazil this year. The American owners of Formula 1 would like to see it happen.
“They want three days of spectacle. If they can offer three days, they can ask for more money, also from the organizers. It’s that simple.”
“The organizers of the races are apparently queuing up to organize this format. The GP of Belgium also has a sprint race. Perhaps that is also a way to gain certainty in the long term about the place of Spa-Francorchamps on the F1 calendar.”
