Sprint qualifying races will be run over 100km (down from the usual 305km), and will take around 25-30 minutes. The starting order for the sprint race will be decided by a traditional qualifying session on the Friday, while the results of the sprint race will determine the starting order for Sunday’s race. Weekends with sprint races will have different timetables to normal race weekends. Friday changes mean that the new-for-2021 format of two one-hour free practice sessions – reduced from two 90-minute session used last year – will swap to just a single one-hour practice session followed by the ‘traditional’ three-part qualifying knockout format.
Ross Brawn explains why he is backing sprint qualifying:
“A sprint qualifying weekend is a much more complete weekend in terms of a competition,” he says. “An intense competition happening on Friday and Saturday and Sunday, all three days. And so we expand the intensity of the weekend. And it still has integrity, and still has a meritocracy to the whole weekend. We want to explore if having a shorter format is more engaging for new fans. The objective here is to maintain the engagement of our avid fans, our established fans. We certainly do not want to alienate our established F1 fans, so this event has integrity and has meritocracy. It’s not a gimmick. The best guys will win the sprint, what they win will have an influence over the weekend, and will have an impact over the weekend. So we want to explore engagement of new fans, and a consolidation and strengthening of the engagement of all of our existing fans. And I think F1 has done a great move in allowing this to proceed at three races during the season, because we can assess those races and decide if this is something we want to take forward, which I’m confident we will.”
Ross Brawn stresses that it’s a work-in-progress and that the format could be tweaked for 2022, assuming it is carried over at all.
“Of course, we can tune it for next season, we can learn lessons from this year. But I think it’s so much better than F1 changing things over the winter and starting the season and then being committed to a format, which might need some tuning, might need some modifications. So this three-race opportunity to try this different format is, I think, a great move for F1. And something we should consider in the future. And already, I think there’s some ideas from some of the stakeholders and teams and so on, to maybe try things, in terms of how we use the tyres or the format of a weekend, to try it at few races and see what happens. So I think it sparks some new thoughts on how we move F1 forward. It’s a high tech sport. And it’s always evolved and always changed. And I don’t think we should be afraid of change. And if we do it in a properly constructed way, then we can have reasonable confidence that we’re going forward in a structured way, and not taking too much risk.”
Ross Brawn points out that adding some excitement to what is now a dull Friday is one of the key aims of a sprint weekend.
“We looked at some of the historic things which had been tried, where you had two qualifyings, a qualifying on the Friday and the Saturday. We remember those days, and it was either the fastest time over the weekend, or your qualifying position on the Friday was added to your qualifying on a Saturday. And all sorts of stuff was tried to try and give action for the whole three days. And it was never terribly successful, because the fans found it frustrating that maybe they watched the fastest car on a Saturday afternoon go fastest, but it wasn’t on pole position. So part of this was to increase the action over the three days, and that helps promoters, helps the fans, helps teams. We just get more coverage for the weekend. I don’t believe we dilute anything. It gives the media a clearer focus on things happening. I’m sure on a Friday, you guys can talk about various aspects of what’s happened on a Friday, but it’s hard work, isn’t it? Whereas this is going to be clear content you can talk about.”
Ross Brawn is very well aware that purists are sceptical, but he hopes that they will be won over:
“First and foremost it’s about the fans. We want greater engagement. We want action for three days. Friday now is kind of interesting, but it’s not definitive. Now we’re going to have a real competition on a Friday, a new competition on a Saturday, and all of that should enhance the Grand Prix on the Sunday. So I don’t believe we cannibalise the Grand Prix in any way. This is all additive, and will contribute towards the whole weekend. I think the fans will gain. The media gain with more content. And of course, the fans at home. The promoters gain, they’ve got something to sell on a Friday, strengthen ticket sales. So, it’s a plus, plus, plus. I guess to meet the criticism head-on, some people like the traditional approach and think we’re messing with something that doesn’t need messing with, and I understand that. But I think the way we’re exploring this opportunity is not going to damage F1 at all. And it will become clear, after the second or third of the events, how well this is succeeding, and how well the fans are engaging with it. I think in terms of next year, we would love to continue with this. It depends on convincing the teams on the merits of going forward. Obviously, we’ve supported the teams this year, financially, to get this over the line. We’ll need to find solutions for that next year. So there’s certainly no commitment to next season yet. That’s something we will talk about, with the benefits of these three events, when we can really understand what impact it’s had, and therefore the value for all the stakeholders involved.” – the former Ferrari boss concluded.
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