Jul.16 - Sebastian Vettel has backed former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone's criticism of the new 'sprint qualifying' format which debuts at Silverstone this weekend.
Ecclestone, 90, said his major objection to the format is that it is "mucking around" with history - given that the purity of a pole position will now be compromised.
"People would say somebody has 70 pole positions but that has gone now," he said. "There is no such thing as a pole position."
Ecclestone's friend and quadruple world champion Vettel agrees that designating the winner of the 100km sprint race on Saturday as the official pole sitter is "wrong".
"It's getting a bit confusing," the German is quoted by DPA news agency.
"If it's a one-time thing, it doesn't do much harm," he added. "But when we do ten sprints next year, it will be a bit strange.
"When I was young, I was a hardcore fan so I would have liked more races. I just think it's important that Sunday remains the main race day."
And the winner of the sprint race, he insists, should not go down in history as the pole-sitter of the grand prix weekend.
"Because it's a new format, we should just introduce a new column of statistics. Pole position should remain the absolute fastest lap of the weekend as the result of qualifying," said Vettel.
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
Agree with them both.
Dumb American idea, hope it fails and we go back full time to Q1,2 and 3.
f1award, Agreed!
VET and Bernie have it right.....and it gives the haters a chance to bash the entire US for a truly lousy corp decision. No worries, we still love you guys.
It is a crap idea thought up by liberty who have no idea about f1 scrap the stupid idea before it goes any further
It is a respectless idea and this : lotteryshow-loving" guys , like C.Carey, R.Brawn amd all other destroyers of F1 should be send home, tomorrow! Stop this idiotic tryouts and respect the history of 70 years F1. This B..S..ers are only interested in money and don't give a ..... for the real F1 hitech sport. This weekend is a big fake with Lewis on regular pole but NO not in the books because some idiots decided a gamblegame was better for fans??? unbvelievable what a idiots!
F1 is the Ultimate so why sully it?
Sebastian is a RACER!
Bernie is a VISIONARY
Is everything about MONEY now?
Well that was fun! Sample 1 is a success imo.
What a waste of my time...
OK, I'M GONNA' YELL. LIKE IT OR NOT, THIS SPRINT RACE FORMAT IS ROSS BRAWN'S BRAINSTORM AND HE SHOULD GET THE KUDOS OR THE CRITICISM. You jerkwads need to do some research before you dis all of America. Sorry for the screech, but not the sentiment.