This weekend the first stage of the season will take place in Shanghai in the Saturday sprint format. The format has undergone some significant changes since last year.
First, the order of the sessions has changed. In 2023, the first training and qualifying took place on Friday, and on Saturday there was the qualifying for the sprint and the sprint itself. This year the format is different: on Friday there is training and qualifying for the sprint, and on Saturday there is a sprint and main qualifying for the race on Sunday.
The change in session order led to the second major change: the application of the ‘closed park’ rule, where teams cannot work on cars or change settings. Only replacement of damaged parts with new ones with the same specifications is permitted.
Last year the ‘park closed’ regime came into effect on Friday from the start of qualifying, but in 2024 there is a significant change.
Parc Ferme restarts on Friday from the start of the sprint qualifying, but ends after the finish of Saturday’s sprint. This way, the teams can work on the cars before the main qualifying session on Saturday and adjust the settings if necessary, based on the information collected in the sprint qualifying and in the sprint itself.
After the start of qualifying on Saturday, the parc ferme regime will resume and continue until the start of the race.
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.
