The new weekend format, which includes the sprint on Saturday, was unanimously approved today at the Formula 1 committee meeting, after which it was approved at the level of the FIA World Motorsport Council.
From the upcoming race weekend in Baku, there will be two qualifiers in such stages of the championship – on Friday it will be run in the usual fashion and the results will determine the running order in the race on Sunday.
But on Saturday, instead of the second training session for the first time, there will be a qualifying called Sprint Shootout – one of the meanings of the word “play to fly”. The starting field for Saturday’s sprint will be drawn up on the basis of the result of this “race”. In addition to Azerbaijan, this will be the format of weekends in Austria, Belgium, Qatar, the US (in Austin) and Brazil.
The duration of qualifying on Saturday is also “sprint”: 12 minutes for the first session, 10 minutes for the second and 8 minutes for the final. In fact, in the third part, those who made it to the final will have the chance to drive only one lap.
In the first two sessions, teams are required to use only Medium tires, in the final – only Soft.
As envisioned by Formula 1 management, such changes should add drama to the course of the weekend, as previous experience with sprints showed that teams only worked with rubber on Saturday practice and there wasn’t much intrigue in that.
In addition, before the sprint determined the starting order of the Grand Prix, so the riders generally preferred to be careful on the track, so as not to take risks again and avoid losing position.
Now Saturday’s short race is just a chance to earn extra points, and there is hope that the fight will become brighter and more spectacular. Points in the sprint are awarded only to the first eight – respectively from eight to one.
How everything will turn out in the conditions of a difficult street circuit in Baku will become clear soon enough, as some teams feared that if the cars are damaged on Saturday, there will be a minimum of time to put the equipment in order. The Azerbaijani weekend will show how justified such concerns are.
It was also clarified that penalties in the form of loss of grid positions obtained during practice or qualifying on Friday will only apply before Sunday’s race. Infringements found on Saturday only affect the starting order in the sprint. But if someone breaks the rules during a short race, it can also affect the starting position for the Grand Prix.
Penalties for replacing power units only apply on Sundays.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
