Stefano Domenicali, the President and Chief Executive Officer at Formula 1, feels the sport is “absolutely” heading in the right direction with sprint ‘races’, despite the fact that the Italian Grand Prix weekend was somewhat criticized. An innovation for the 2021 Formula 1 season, the sprint qualifying concept brings forward a 100km sprint ‘race’ that takes place on a Saturday at selected race weekends, the result of which determine the final grid for the Grand Prix on Sunday, as traditional qualifying is moved forward to Friday.
It is a concept which is being trialled, so only three stagings will take place this season. The first two were at Silverstone and Monza, with the Sao Paulo Grand Prix set to be the final host. Until now there have been mixed reviews for this idea, despite the fact that after the Monza sprint, which was less of a success than Silverstone’s, many in the paddock are calling for some alterations or a complete scrapping of the idea.
But it was always going to be a case of trial and error before Formula 1 reassess, and so former Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali is satisfied with how things are evolving:
“I think as I always said, I’m happy because things are progressing in the right direction,” he said, as reported by Channel 4 – “You may argue on the fact the sprint race [at Monza] was not so interesting. But at the end of the day he [Daniel Ricciardo] had an incredible start, something happened, and then you see there is a McLaren on the front row. And as I always said, we will do the debrief at the end of the third session in Brazil to see what are the things we can bring on. But I think what we are doing is absolutely the right thing.” – he explained.
It is also an interesting moment for the sport to try different experiments, given the fact that a golden generation of young talent is establishing themselves in Formula One. Asked about the prospects for the future, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali remains optimistic, explaining the sport is keen to share that with all different groups of people as the sport’s audience grows.
“We are in an incredibly positive moment for Formula 1. That’s the great value for all the stakeholders here and the momentum is growing, growing, growing in terms of attention, newcomers, new followers and that’s the right way to do it. I think the language we are working in order to connect with the new generation is the right one. We have different narratives for people that are of a different age, that want to see something different. But Formula 1 is at the centre, and that’s the beauty of what we are living today.” – Stefano Domenicali concluded.
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