formula 1 could undergo a drastic change in the configuration of the Baku Grand Prix, next April 31. In that weekend a new classification format would be carried out incorporating the ‘sprint race’.
This novelty, which was already implemented last year, did not end with success among the pilots, but the success it has gained in MotoGP has provoked the desire in the boss of ‘The Great Circus’.
Stefano Domenicali. He already anticipated that changes would come regarding the format of the weekends. The leader was very attentive to motorcycling in the past Portimao Grand Prixand took good note of the expectation that brought sprint racing.
The ‘new’ format
The format would be as follows:
- Friday: Free practice 1 and qualifying for the race on Sunday (instead of free practice 2).
- Saturday: Qualifying for the sprint (instead of free practice 3) and sprint race.
- Sunday: The race, with the starting line resulting from Friday’s qualifying.
Thus, Fridays and Saturdays would make more senseand the weekend would be more exciting.
The grill sees it with good eyes
The drivers would have a better chance of beating themselves in the sprint, since in the race this would not be negatively affected.
Christian Horner was very supportive of this option: “I hope we can tidy up the sprint weekend format a bit. I know there’s a lot of work being done on it, so hopefully we can finalize it soon,” she said.
Just like the Red Bull adviser, Marko Helmutwho on ‘Servus TV’ confessed that “with two qualifying sessions you can take more risks in the sprint and the race becomes more interesting.
“Saturday training is uselessbut if they now become a qualifying session Saturday will be much better“, he stressed.
The head of Hass, Guenther Steiner has also revealed that they are in talks for “add a second qualifying session to the sprint race“.
