F1 qualifying sessions doubled for Sprint and Grand Prix
Apr.5 - Formula 1 teams have apparently approved CEO Stefano Domenicali's plan to spice up the 'sprint' race weekend format.
It emerged in Australia that the sport's Italian chief wanted to replace a practice session with a second qualifying session.
"Of course the drivers need time to practice," Domenicali told Sky Deutschland. "But the people in the stands come to see power and performance.
"The more often you give the teams and drivers the chance to show who they are, the better the show is.
"Together with the drivers and teams we are thinking about what could be the best plan for that," the F1 CEO added.
Stefano Domenicali
It is believed Domenicali wants the 'plan' to be voted on and approved before the very next race at Baku - and according to Sky Deutschland, the agreement of the teams has at least been achieved.
Now, there will be separate qualifying sessions for both Saturday's sprint race and the main grand prix on Sunday.
Qualifying for Sunday's race will now apparently take place on Friday afternoons, with another separate qualifying for the sprint to then occur on Saturday.
"Stefano put a little bit more of his vision out there for the future," said Haas boss Gunther Steiner, "because that is what he has to do for FOM - have a vision, where are we going?"
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Not yet formally approved, but likely only a matter of time & final detail-sorting.
Wouldn't it have been better if you had the Sprint Quali of Friday, Sprint on Saturday morning, Race Quali on Saturday afternoon and then the race on Sunda?
At least then they could've had one setup for Sprint and another for the proper race.
Yeah, that was also my thinking. It's very weird to qualify on Friday for the GP of Sunda, while you also will qualify the next morning for the sprint. Would be much more logical to do Friday quali for the Sprint the next morning and qualify in the afternoon like it's done now.
Sounds a mess to me, I can see what they are trying to do , but quali on a work day six times a year Mmmmm..
Domenicali is like a madman. Jumps into the water before he knows how deep it is! I am sure they could have put up better options if he bothered to consult people, before deciding what they need! Sounds like an autocrat!
I thought the whole point of the sprint was to determine the start positions on Sunday?? What’s next? A Sprint championship?
Why not 2 hour testing on Friday AM/PM, with tyre compounds not to be used in the races, Sprint Qualy on Sat AM, Spint race Sat PM, Sunday Race Qualy, Sunday Race?
Leave it alone. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
Number or races increasing, number of places wanting a race increasing, number of fans increasing thanks to Netlix drive to survive, the value of F1 teams increasing.
Just leave the format alone.
Max is not the type of bloke to make empty threats about quitting if they change thi gs too much
Thats my humble opinion.
I agree basically with these guys. F1 is expensive, as we know, as an a.o.p. I and many others pay £180 or more to watch the F1 per year. So a lot of people are getting rich. to make it simple why not practise Friday morning, qualify for sprint Friday afternoon, practice Saturday, morning, sprint Saturday afternoon, Sunday as normal. Or we could say let the champ choose, not the millionaire's.
Let’s see what happens when several front runners get taken out before the Grand Prix but what can we expect, the times they are a changing.