“A third” of the 23 Grands Prix for the 2022 Formula 1 season will most likely feature the new ‘sprint qualifying’ weekend format. That is the news directly confirmed by Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, who was recently interviewed by Italian daily newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.
The second sprint qualifying event is scheduled to take place this weekend at the Monza track, while the last one for this year will take place in Brazil and the last for 2021 will be in Brazil in November.
“The direction is right. For 2022 we are aiming for a calendar of 23 races, of which a third are to have this type of (sprint) format to increase the unpredictability.” – Stefano Domenicali explained, according to the Italian media.
However, covid continues to create difficulties even for the current 2021 season, including for the final sprint qualifying trial in the 2021 São Paulo Grand Prix:
“We are trying to protect ourselves from these problems as much as possible, because now we have this fight for the championship. The mayor of Sao Paulo assured us that all the necessary measures have been taken to ensure that the race in Brazil will take place with full stands. As for Qatar, this option is being discussed but I cannot say anything more precisely until next week.” – he added.
Stefano Domenicali is also hinting that Formula 1 will begin to mandate that teams must run young and inexperienced drivers at some practice sessions in 2022.
“This topic is very important and interesting to us, and we have some ideas that we will discuss in the next meetings with the teams,” the former Ferrari boss is quoted by L’Equipe.
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