Verstappen: I don’t understand why the weekend’s format needs to be changed

On the eve it was announced that the leadership of Formula 1 is discussing the renewed design of the race weekend with a sprint. If the idea is implemented, the riders will have to do two qualifying sessions already in the next stage in Baku – on Friday to determine the starting position in the race on Sunday and on Saturday to determine the starting position in the sprint.

In Melbourne, at a post-qualifying press conference, Max Verstappen was asked to comment on a potential innovation and the Red Bull Racing driver said he was against sprint weekends in principle.

Max Verstappen: “I’m not a fan of this at all. We have spent too many races already and now there are proposals to make the weekend even more intense. I don’t think this is the right way.

I understand the basic idea of ​​making every day of the weekend exciting, but I think it’s better to shorten the weekend to Saturday and Sunday, leaving one race, making these two days exciting.

Formula 1 is evolving towards 24-25 stages in a season, but if they are going to add more events on the track to this, then this does not suit me. I do not like that.

For me, the sprint is a survival race that has nothing to do with real racing. If you have a fast car, you don’t take any risks. I prefer to save the car for the race on Sunday. Even if the format of the weekend changes, sprints will not become part of Formula 1’s DNA.

The essence of Formula 1 is to squeeze the maximum out of the car in qualifying and then drive well for the long distance of Sunday’s race. These are the principles of Formula 1 and I don’t understand and don’t know why I need to change the format when we already have an interesting show.

If you want to add more spectacle, make the difference between the cars smaller, make sure more teams can compete for victory. And then, of course, the fight gets cool. If six or seven teams are fighting for first place, that’s great and nothing needs to change.