A few days ago the official announcement arrived: the F1 2023 calendar will consist of “only” 23 grands prix. In the end, China lost the battle despite trying to reassure the top management of Liberty Media Corporate about the fact that they can hist the Shanghai event without any more of the pandemic restrictions.
But this is not the case, as China is hit by yet another Covid wave that has generated the harsh reaction of a government which acts without too much hesitation in closing entire country at any time.
Formula One clearly could not afford to get entangled in protocols that provide for long quarantines in a phase of the championship in which there was no possibility of keeping workers, technicians, drivers and insiders still. It was therefore decided to proceed by canceling once again an event that fails to return to the calendar despite bilateral efforts and attempts.
The ownership, in mutual agreement with the International Federation, has also decided not to replace the race that should have been held in the heart of April between the GPs of Australia and Azerbaijan, much to the disappointment of Portugal and, to a lesser extent, Malaysia, that had hoped to be able to enter on the 2023 Formula One calendar through the back door. There will thus be a gap of four weeks in which teams will be able to rest for a bit after the first three championship appointments.
Instead, what remains firmly in the lineup is the Sprint Race. That format for which Liberty Media pushed like a steam train and which will double in 2023 after running the risk of disappearing first due to the disagreement with the teams who asked for – and obtained – more money and then with the FIA which threatened to get in the way if Liberty Media would not agree to pay for the extra staff that will be used to manage the short races.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection! Click here to enter the F1 online Store and shop securely! And also get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
Pat Symonds, Chief Technical Officer of Formula 1, spoke of the Sprint Race as a tool capable of increasing the appeal of the entire motorsport category. An event capable of breaking the monotony that some weekends offer despite the regulation change imposed by the owners which had the purpose of leading to closer racing and more on-track action.
“There are those who like it and those who don’t like it, but for me what we do is a competition. And what fascinates me about a competition is when it is unpredictable. On a normal race weekend there is no competition on Friday, so what is the attraction? We are here to challenge each other. Also, today the teams are so good at the simulation that, with plenty of time on Friday, they have two hours to fine-tune the car and make sure everything is in place. All of this leads to predictability.” – he pointed out.
“The Sprint allows us to have a competition every day because qualifying is on Friday, the short race is on Saturday and the Grand Prix is on Sunday. In my view, this happens without the secondary show distracting from the main event and I think this is important, because the Grand Prix is the essence of everything. By reducing the amount of time teams have to fine-tune their cars and incorporating another “error generator” with the Sprint race, we have the potential to have a slightly more mixed GP. These are the races that people like.” – the Chief Technical Officer of Formula 1 believes.
It is interesting to see how a long-time technician feels it is good to have less time to set up cars for the benefit of the show. Perhaps the real problem of the Sprint Race is the lack of compatibility with the few active sessions and with the presence of the Parc Fermé rules which limits the possibility of correcting setup errors. This creates potential imbalances that favor the show. But it is also done at the expense of safety, especially when the weather conditions change suddenly.
The direction has now been traced. The six mini races on Saturday will tend to become more and more as the standard of the category which this time will take an example from Formula 2 that has consolidated this type of weekend “layout” for years. It is motorsport in its entirety that is veering towards this model, so much so that even MotoGP, the main category of two wheels, will use the Sprint Race in 2023.
The need to make weekends more entertaining – and therefore more marketable to TVs and fans – is spreading like wildfire. Formula One, it now appears evident, rides and adapts to an unstoppable philosophical structural change. And the enthusiasm of an old-school insider proves that even the mentality of ultra-conservatives is slowly opening up to new things.
Leave a Reply