Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali sees no reason not to add more sprint rounds to the calendar in future seasons.
Six of the 24 rounds on the 2024 F1 calendar are sprint events. The first took place last weekend in China and the next round in Miami will also feature a sprint race.Formula 1 and the FIA have increased the number of sprint rounds from three per season when the format was introduced in 2021, to six from last year. But Domenicali believes the number of sprint rounds the sport holds in a season could be increased.
Asked by Sky whether if he was considering proposing more sprint races on the calendar, Domenicali replied: “Why not?”
“I would say this is great,” he continued, “because it keeps the tension on every day. And this is something that we will discuss in the future. Now, let’s see how this year with the sprints in the way that we have decided this year will go – but that’s a point of discussion.”
Domenicali said the sprint race qualifying session on Friday in Shanghai, which was affected by rain and saw neither Red Bull driver qualify on the front row of the grid, as evidence why sprint rounds provide greater entertainment than a conventional race weekend.
“For sprint qualifying in incredible conditions, we had a lot of runs,” he said. “And that reminds us that we have a duty to make sure that every day there is some action on the track, to respect the fans that are coming here because they want to have fun.”
He is keen to avoid a repeat of the situation seen at the previous round in Japan, where rain fell in second practice and teams covered few laps in order to save sets of their intermediate tyres. Domenicali wants to ensure the sport “avoids any possibility” of a recurrence.
“This is not good for the people that are coming to see us, to see the drivers,” he said. “And I’m sure that the teams will understand. So we need to find solutions.”
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Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
26th April 2024, 13:42
There’s also no reason, besides money, to add them. I wish they were honest about it instead of trying to use tension or emotion as arguments.
Craig
26th April 2024, 16:23
I think it was fairly obvious they only ever intended to lie about it after the first one which they insisted was a “test” they seemed to have the media forced to read from a script about how amazing and revolutionary it was. Certainly I remember the presenters verbally praising it yet looking like they didn’t mean a word they said.
Mayrton
28th April 2024, 8:32
True, there was no doubt from their side this would become a standard format. Liberty has a sole objective which is to increase shareholder value. All other elements, all, must be subject to this. They couldn’t care less whether they sell sports or underpants. Companies like these take all the shine out of our world and they know it and still don’t care.
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
26th April 2024, 13:54
How about 0.
AlexS
27th April 2024, 2:33
Precisely.
lonestar311 (@lonestar311)
27th April 2024, 6:02
Ditto.
Michael A.
27th April 2024, 8:20
@Yes.
Exactly, just scrap the entire idea!
Corporate (F1) greed knows no bounds.
Scrap all of this sprint nonsense.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
26th April 2024, 14:01
I tell you what Stefano, we will try 7 sprints per season if you promise to leave F1 and never return.
Deal?
Mayrton
29th April 2024, 7:23
I am afraid that might not work. He is just a puppet. He is called CEO but he is far from it of course. It’s the Board of Liberty which decide what happens to their entertainment franchise called F1. Poor Stefano just has to execute otherwise he is out. And he wants his salary really bad, so he anxiously comes up with whatever circus act to boost revenue. Even if he has to throw away the legacy of the sport that made him get to this position.
Ski (@zapski)
26th April 2024, 14:03
How about no Sprint Races?
osnola
26th April 2024, 14:31
Maybe they should organize a poll and see what the fans do like..
oh wait..
Well maybe they can keep polling until they get the desired result.
Dex
26th April 2024, 15:58
They did, and they never shared the results (not that I would believe in the presented numbers anyway, because why would I?). He said that fans were overwhelmingly supporting the format if I remember correctly, and he probably added something along the “it just needs some tweaking” lines. The man is a liar, plain and simple.
S
26th April 2024, 14:34
We’ve known that for years.
Just make them all sprint events. Should satisfy those who say they want consistency for all events – as if F1 doesn’t offer enough of that already.
And yes, it is about money. There is no dishonesty here in that regard. F1 is a business, and so is the media company pulling all the commercial strings.
But that isn’t the only reason to try and produce more entertainment and satisfaction in F1.
SteveP
26th April 2024, 14:39
Unless he’s talking about a tension headache from annoyance, the response is that I’ve seen more tension in a plate of overcooked spaghetti.
As others have said, zero seems a good number.
PeterG
26th April 2024, 14:49
It’s an easy fix. Just give teams more sets of intermediate/wet tires on Friday.
Teams been so unwilling to run in wet conditions on Friday was something that only really became a thing when the amount of wet tires they had available for the weekend became less.
I can remember sitting trackside in awful conditions in the 80s/90s/Early 2000’s where there was plenty of running because they had more than enough tires to use. The Friday at Silverstone in 2000 comes to mind, Awful conditions (And not just on the track that year) yet we still saw a good amount of running over the 2 Friday sessions.
My other memory from that day was ending up walking back to the car barefoot as my feet got stuck in the mud & at some point neither of my shoes came back up with my feet & then I lost my socks as well. Fun times :)
MichaelN
26th April 2024, 15:25
Even more tyres is not a very sustainable change.
Rather, not having tyres that can barely last the length of a daily commute is an easy solution and would also force Pirelli to create compounds that don’t only work in an extremely narrow temperature range.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
26th April 2024, 23:40
It isn’t. But honestly, as much as I am pro envioronmental issues (and am pro active in that regard) if F1 needs a few more tyres, give it a few more tyres. Until they invent a fully green tyre, this is what the sport relies upon.
If we want F1 to be the greenest it can be, then I guess that would be no F1.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
26th April 2024, 15:25
Well that depends. If the weather doesn’t show rain for the rest of the weekend, why would you run in FP2?
Certainly more tyres available help, but the weather can throw this kind of situations where teams are unwilling to run. That’s just normal. People need to stop trying to see action where there isn’t… it’s “practice” after all!
KaIIe (@kaiie)
26th April 2024, 15:08
Yeah no. As has been mentioned plenty of times, the sprint race effectively acts as a first stage of the race, and thus spoils the initial excitement of the Grand Prix.
Dex
26th April 2024, 15:56
So we, the majority of fans of this sport, are not even a factor to be considered, or at least mentioned? We’re no reason at all? The least likeable guy I’ve seen in a long time, and one of the least honest as well. The worst thing is that your drivers as enthusiastic as we are, if not less, about this silly format.
Craig
26th April 2024, 16:21
And it’s not even bringing in any additional ticket sales or TV viewers. I think they’re only classifying it as a good thing because it prompts social media “engagement”
lonestar311 (@lonestar311)
27th April 2024, 6:10
In my case, not only is it not bringing any additional TV viewers, I am not watching anything but the actual race. This sprint annoyance has disrupted the standard practice/qualifying sequence and I do not like it. It’s a gimmick. Stop it.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
26th April 2024, 23:42
I don’t claim to know the numbers, but I would imagine that thier figures suggest that the majority do want sprint races. Unless you believe that they are trying to destroy the sport.
Craig
26th April 2024, 16:20
He can **** off.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
26th April 2024, 18:15
I’m really in support of modifying or adding races or events to the race weekend but I still don’t think this is it. Every time we change the rules I suppose it gets better but it’s still not worth overriding the race weekend and it seems foolish to keep adding them without a clear objective of what you want out of it. Because what it currently is, isn’t it.
SteveP
27th April 2024, 7:57
If it was being done properly, with aspiring F1 drivers, it would increase the number of drivers in action, and Bearman, Shwartzman, O’Ward, Drugovich, Pourchaire, Fittipaldi, Lawson and even Chadwick would feature in the discussions of who had a good race and who had not.
Previous year’s cars.
Broadsowrd to Danny Boy
29th April 2024, 12:58
there are already too many races on the calendar; my suggestion for variety would be that each car has to run at least in at least two full GP races without it’s main driver at the controls. This would add variety and would give reserve and other potential F1 drivers valuable experience and a chance to prove themselves and catch the eye of teams.
If all teams had to do this then none would suffer unduly because of it. It would also make the season marginally less busy for the main drivers and also mean that if one missed a race due to a minor injury they wouldn’t necessarily lose out in a close points situation as every driver has to sit out at least two races. What’s not to like?
An Sionnach
26th April 2024, 19:05
If they want to add more show to create engagement for non-fans, they can get the drivers to suit up and have an Elvis impersonation competition on Saturday, then give the drivers a good feed of pints and prevent them from sleeping that night, introducing more jeopardy in the races. Max will still win.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
26th April 2024, 19:35
Ahah, as soon as I read the headline I was like “we were not surprised”, I keep seeing in the comment section that they would keep increasing them and here they are!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
26th April 2024, 19:35
“we’re not surprised”
Leksa (@leksa)
26th April 2024, 19:52
Jeez. Haven’t you done enough damage? Ban this man forever from F1.
kuvemar
26th April 2024, 19:54
Well yeah, it should be 24. The trial phase should be over by now and there’s really no reason to limit the amount of sprints anymore.
BMW P85 V10
26th April 2024, 20:01
Money talks. I think the main for sprint races is that F1 can’t bring supporting racing leagues to all those new exotic events.
And if they wan’t to contract more events they should be alternating per region, which also gives the teams a little less reliable data for each venue. It would mean you can keep the classic racks.
Oh, and stop organsing street races, they’re horrible.
NinjaBadger (@ninjabadger)
26th April 2024, 20:52
I still don’t quite get what headset FOM are in regarding sprint races.
If they say its such a boon for F1 and are so enthusiastic about its addition, then surely they’d be pushing to have it expanded to as many race weekends as possible.
Sure, some tracks might have logisital issues and/or clashes with support races.
But, after four years, having it at just 6 out of 24 rounds seems very non-committal.
Either have it as a fully-fledged part of the championship, or don’t.
Having it as this ethereal presence in the F1 landscape is just selling your own idea short.
(Even if they’re still testing the format, but surely they’d want more opportunities to test it.)
NinjaBadger (@ninjabadger)
26th April 2024, 21:01
Meant “mindset” not “headset”
Also if I was to put on my tin foil hat:
FOM could be trying to hold out on a full sprint race program until the championship is less one-sided.
Since I don’t think they’d want to effectively double the optics of a dominant season.
Tristan
27th April 2024, 0:18
“Why not?”
There’s been plenty of reasons why not. And most importantly lately it’s impacting health and safety with the already jam-packed calendar.
If your broadcasters commentary team can’t even go to every race citing those reasons, how do you think the teams feel.
It’s actually a contemptuous position.
Jere (@jerejj)
27th April 2024, 6:19
& I wouldn’t mind either way.
BB
27th April 2024, 7:04
It’s a useless format, with a mini race, before the actual race. Ask the fans if they understand it- and you’ll find 90% don’t. You might as well call it, the little race, before the official race. Or the Saturday race before the Sunday race. My 2 cents
S
27th April 2024, 9:44
It’s a race. A short one…. How much more understanding is needed?
Ask those same people what part of F1 they are interested in most. At least 90% will say “races.”
Dale
27th April 2024, 8:35
It’s actually surprising just how bad this guy is for F1 … almost like he’s intentionally trying to damage it.
Michael A.
28th April 2024, 10:53
Dale – Stefano is only the puppet having its strings and vocals manipulated by his bosses.
Scrap the STUPID sprint things!
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
27th April 2024, 9:41
Keeping the tension ? It has the exact opposite effect on me, here are my F1 sprint weekends so far:
Fridays – As now the start of the competitive sessions happen right during my worktime I have to settle for the replays. Replays are so annoying because it is difficult to arrange a multi-screen setup, so I’m already having less fun.
On Saturdays, the only thing nice about sprint races is the lack of preparations for everyone. Other that that, it is dull or if it isn’t (yay, rain!) it is too short anyways.
And it just shows you the entire pecking order. I mean, look at the results between China’s sprint and race result.
Enter Sundays, having already so little fun at that point I’m planning watching the replay to eventually fast-forward to the predicted result.
For now, the sprint weekends tension just works the opposite way of my free time.
Thank you FOM.
S
27th April 2024, 9:58
And qualifying doesn’t every other weekend?
AlanD
27th April 2024, 15:29
Sprint races have problems with a lot of fans, me included. F1 changes every year. Refuelling became dangerous. Refuelling was banned. It was allowed. It was banned again. Tyre regs change. Wing regs change. The interpretation of fair driving changes. Just like any other sport, F1 evolves. Perhaps it evolves at a greater rate than most sports, but all sports review their rules and interpretations and evolve to remain relevant. Sprint races are not an evolution. They are the result of a marketing committee sitting down with the mission to jazz up F1 with any radical idea they could come up with.
It just seems absurd to mix formats like this. It would be like football announcing that each team, in addition to its 38 normal matches would also play seven five-a-side matches each year, with those points counting towards the championship. It doesn’t enhance the format, it devalues it. But like so many high-profile ideas, people won’t say they’ve got it wrong, and instead tell us it just that we need to move with the times, that we’ll get used to it, that it is our fault for not liking it.
Moi
27th April 2024, 18:31
It kills sundays.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
28th April 2024, 2:19
they could do 24 sprints, but keep the points in a different category. The season doesn’t need to be over by summer break.
S
28th April 2024, 9:40
You are complaining about the lack of competition in F1, but blaming it on sprints awarding championship points…