Published on December 5, 2023 at 2:29 p.m. – updated on December 5, 2023 at 2:30 p.m. Aurélien Canot
The 2024 F1 season will once again feature six sprint races. F1 unveiled on Tuesday the Grands Prix where the six meetings in question will take place. China and Miami, who will open the ball, replace Azerbaijan and Belgium.
There will be six sprint races on the program next season, and the six dates are known. F1 unveiled this Tuesday the 2024 menu for sprint races, a format tested for the first time in Great Britain in 2021 and since adopted on certain Grands Prix, above all with the aim of offering spectators and television viewers on Saturday a second race in addition to that on Sunday, certainly with only eight points at stake for the winner, compared to 25 points for a Grand Prix victory. The format, modified over the years (particularly with regard to the points scale), will have its fourth season. And for the second year in a row, not only three sprint races will be on the calendar (as was the case in 2021 and 2022) but twice as many, namely six meetings. The number should not change in the short term. Apart from two Grands Prix, the locations will be the same. Austria (Red Bull Ring), on Saturday June 29, the United States (Austin), October 19, Brazil (Sao Paulo), November 2, and Qatar (Losail), November 30, will appear as well back on the menu.
Shanghai and Miami replace Baku and Spa
On the other hand, Azerbaijan (Baku) and Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps) are gone. Baku is paying the price for China’s big return to the calendar after five years of absence (Editor’s note: The Grand Prix disappeared at the very beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2019). It is also Shanghai, on Saturday November 20, 5th round of the 2024 World Championship season, which will kick off the sprint racing season. Miami, which will celebrate the 3rd edition of its Grand Prix, will follow in the footsteps of the largest Chinese city. The first two sprint races of the season will indeed follow one another, and the second will take place in Florida on May 4. Note that next January it will be proposed to the teams to modify the current weekend agenda (classic qualifying on Friday, qualifying for the sprint race on Saturday morning and sprint race on Saturday afternoon). Qualifying for the sprint race could thus be brought forward to Friday evening, with the sprint race taking place on Saturday morning, before classic qualifying, which would take place on Saturday afternoon.
The sprint race calendar in 2024
April 20 (GP on April 21): Chinese GP
May 4 (GP on May 5): Miami GP
June 29 (GP on June 30): Austrian GP
October 19 (GP on October 20): United States GP
November 2 (GP on November 3): Brazilian GP
November 30 (GP on December 1): Qatar GP
