Sprint in 2022: what has changed?

On Saturday, Imola will host the first of three scheduled sprint races, but this format has undergone some changes in 2022.

In 2021 qualifying sprints were held at Silverstone, Monza and Sao Paulo, with the starting order determined by qualifying on Friday, followed by a 100km sprint on Saturday, which formed the grid for the Grand Prix.

The sprint experiment was considered a success and Formula 1 leadership proposed six such weekends in 2022, including in Bahrain, but not all teams supported this idea. It was understandable that opponents were pushing for an increase in extra payments for sprints, as every race increases the risk of cars being damaged, and in circumstances with limited budgets this can be a serious problem.

As a result, a compromise was found, in the new season’s calendar there were three such Saturday races and these will be held in Imola, Austria and Brazil.

But at the same time, the scoring system has changed, which will increase the value of sprint races. Last year, according to the results of the race on Saturday, extra points were awarded to the top three riders, and this year to the top eight.

The winner of the sprint gets 8 points, the runner-up 7, and so on. Whoever crosses the finish line in eighth gets one bonus point. In general, everyone now has something to fight for.

In addition, the confusion with pole positions has been eliminated: now the winner of Friday’s qualifying is considered the winner of the pole position and his performance is recorded in the official statistics. Last year the winner of the qualifying sprint became such a driver.

But on Sunday, this driver’s car will of course take first place on the grid.