Six sprint races in 2023

Just confirmed at the WMSC.

Venues to be announced later.

With a ridiculous number of race weekends, this is even more egregious than the three sprints have been these past two years.

Pathetic stuff.

Facepalm.

Where even could these six be - Bahrain, Baku, Austria, Britain, Monza and Brazil?

Edited by MJB5990, 27 September 2022 - 15:07.

How much does this matter? Is it just more F1 than we want to watch, or is there something more sinister going on? I've not made my mind up about whether the sprint races make the Grands Prix the following day better or worse or about the same.

I've enjoyed the sprint weekends so far. Happy they're continuing with the experiment.

Will have my fingers crossed the British GP is one of the six, as it's great for the track experience IMO.

They make them worse, by effectively starting the grand prix early and allowing any out of position cars on the grid to gravitate back to their on-pace ranking.

They also dilute the impact of a Grand Prix as being THE race, the only bit that should give points.

Qualifying should be to set the grid, nothing more.

More 'spectacle', more content for social media just as Liberty likes it.

Yawn

How much does this matter? Is it just more F1 than we want to watch, or is there something more sinister going on? I've not made my mind up about whether the sprint races make the Grands Prix the following day better or worse or about the same.

I would be fine with it with a reversed grid system but certainly not this concept

They make them worse, by effectively starting the grand prix early and allowing any out of position cars on the grid to gravitate back to their on-pace ranking.

They also dilute the impact of a Grand Prix as being THE race, the only bit that should give points.

Qualifying should be to set the grid, nothing more.

Great I look forward to those.

They make them worse, by effectively starting the grand prix early and allowing any out of position cars on the grid to gravitate back to their on-pace ranking.
 
They also dilute the impact of a Grand Prix as being THE race, the only bit that should give points.
 
Qualifying should be to set the grid, nothing more.

I would be fine with it with a reversed grid system but certainly not this concept

In my opinion, sprint races are the worst thing to have happened to F1 since I can remember .

It's taking all the tension out of the race weekend, by cramming an artificial pseudo-competitive element into it .

They don't even deny it's for marketing purposes only .

Facepalm.

 

Where even could these six be - Bahrain, Baku, Austria, Britain, Monza and Brazil?

So they ran out of B's

Now we need atleast 4 more engines with 2 specifically for sprint purpose.

Is not they said that from next season all sprint weekends have the main GP grid set through the qualifying with sprint race being an standalone event?

Edited by genius83, 27 September 2022 - 16:21.

Agree with this. Originally I hated the concept of reverse grids, but if F1 are going down the ‘entertainment’ route, then why not go all in?

People think that in feeder series (not all, some do it like GB3 or British F4 for example but Italian F4 doesn't do it, neither does F. Regional Europe) reverse grids (well usually top 10 is reversed, in GB3 they even do a complete reverse but they also add 1 point per car overtaken there which is very interesting) is because of entertainment: it really is not.

In feeder series they reverse grids (or top 10s) so drivers would become better at overtaking: as a learning tool. Otherwise you could have dominant drivers driving away from pole in lots of races (that's exactly what Bulgarian Alonso backed talent Nikola Tsolov is doing in Spanish F4) and then they hardly have to overtake with a consequence that those drivers didn't learn to do much overtaking in that series. That's why they started reversing top 8's or top 10s for races: so drivers have to work harder and become more skilled overtakers.

In F1 though the entertainment factor would be the motivation. They claim that they introduced sprint races for entertainment well at least reverse them then because now it only means more opportunities to make a larger points gap with midfield teams for top teams.

...  Originally I hated the concept of reverse grids, but if F1 are going down the ‘entertainment’ route, then why not go all in?

If F1 went down that path, it'd just be another Reality TV show .

America's Got Speed - count me out .

If F1 went down that path, it'd just be another Reality TV show .

It's what Liberty probably wants and Netflix too

6 too many sprint races.

Will continue to use the only voice I have by boycotting them and not watching them on tv.

Pointless exercise since 1 less viewer will make zero difference but I stick to my principles and hopefully others, that hate them, follow suit so the numbers actually start to drop.

Only way to get rid of them is to tank the viewing numbers.

If my voice had an actual power, those that are pushing for it would be banned from attending or being involved in any form of racing and also forced to personally apologize to every single F1 fan, At their own cost.

6 is too many, 3 was fine

6 is too many, 3 was fine

0 was fine.

Embarrassing

**** Domenicali for good. Enough is enough.

Think I'm going to watch only half of the races next year. And not renew F1TV, but use illegal streams. Sucks for them.

Edited by Ruusperi, 27 September 2022 - 16:49.

3 more sprint races. 3 PUs for the entire season?  Grid penalties 

Races in Spa and Monza are just going to be grid penalties galore for the foreseeable future.  Interesting dynamic and I doubt the track promoters would have voted being pigeonholed into the event where everyone takes grid penalties. 

Edited by ARTGP, 27 September 2022 - 18:28.

I hate them.

I genuinely hate what they do to the race weekend and how it dilutes the build-up of excitement to a Grand Prix.

The general reaction across social media tells you everything regarding how much Liberty care.

Within 5 or 6 years I fully expect half of the GP weekends to be sprint races. On top of the 24+ ‘actual’ races.

Ergh. Overkill.

There's just too many races. 24 Sunday races and 6 saturday races is 30 races total. That's simply absurd.  

Edited by ARTGP, 27 September 2022 - 18:35.

I would be fine with it with a reversed grid system but certainly not this concept

Agree with this. Originally I hated the concept of reverse grids, but if F1 are going down the ‘entertainment’ route, then why not go all in?

Exactly. If they’re going to stick with this awful system at least go the whole hog and introduce something to make the sprints anything other than the open laps of a normal GP. Bores the hell out of me.

Before the ‘then don’t watch it’ crew come out, give it a rest. I’m an F1 fan so will watch regardless.

Liberty really are being stupid for no other reason than they have the power to make said stupid decisions. All they have to do to keep their F1 golden goose alive in perpetuity is ensure the sport has as many competitive/close seasons as possible. Do that and the sport will generate interest, drama, audience retention, entertainment etc whatever else they quite blatantly wrongly say sprint races produce, as it literally always has. This is nothing but a power trip.

I would be fine with it with a reversed grid system but certainly not this concept

Awful decision.

I hate the sprint races, but it doesn't matter what I think because Stefano Domenicali has already made up his mind:

"The Sprint provides action across three days with the drivers all fighting for something right from the start on Friday through to the main event on Sunday - adding more drama and excitement to the weekend. The feedback from the fans, teams, promoters, and partners has been very positive and the format is adding a new dimension to Formula 1, and we all want to ensure its success in the future."

Sprint races are trash. Drivers don't push cause it's not worth it. Why go for 3-2-1 points if one mistake can get you to the back of the grid for Sunday? 

I hate the sprint races, but it doesn't matter what I think because Stefano Domenicali has already made up his mind:

"The Sprint provides action across three days with the drivers all fighting for something right from the start on Friday through to the main event on Sunday - adding more drama and excitement to the weekend. The feedback from the fans, teams, promoters, and partners has been very positive and the format is adding a new dimension to Formula 1, and we all want to ensure its success in the future."

Utter bulls**t.

Sprint races are trash. Drivers don't push cause it's not worth it. Why go for 3-2-1 points if one mistake can get you to the back of the grid for Sunday?

The feedback from the fans, teams, promoters, and partners has been very positive

Utter bulls**t.

Good old doublespeak, so commonplace now in Putin's Russia and obviously at Liberty's HQ. Easy for them to claim that, when they distort their survey questions, listen to only yes-men and turn a blind eye to everything but positive Instagram-updates. In other words: hype means money, so hype is a must.
 

Sprint races are now worth 8–7–6–5–4–3–2–1 points. (Yeah, the 6 points is one-third of P2 in the grand prix.)

Edited by ARTGP, 27 September 2022 - 19:29.

Edited by Yoshi, 27 September 2022 - 19:39.

Guys, this thing died a while back. Only the attention span challenged or those with the emotional depth of a teaspoon (hello to you on the forum) really get anything from them I think. Take the nihilistic route, the sport will eat itself eventually so enjoy the circus while it lasts. Meanwhile: Indycar, WEC, IMSA.

Dont like the weekend being tempered with, but I'd rather see the races extended to 400km than have a 100km "sprint" the day before.

I received a survey from F1 fan voice about the sprint format. I tried to choose the worst option for it, but alas. They only take on positive surveys about it.

It is just too much. F1 is going full NASCAR with all those events. I'm not willing to plan half my weekends a year around F1. Scrap that. 24/39 weekends (since the season runs for about 9 months) is getting out of hand.

Edited by SenorSjon, 27 September 2022 - 20:36.

overkill eventually the bubble will burst with Liberty and F1 could be like how champ car died 

Can't say I'm overwhelmed with the announcement of more sprint races, of the five we've had to date in my mind the only truly enjoyable sprint was Brazil last year. Admittedly that race was helped by Hamilton starting from the back, but even without that were several other overtakes, whereas in most of the others the race seems to have settled down after the opening couple of laps with few position changes until the end. With an even longer calendar next year I'm not sure I will watch all of them, particularly if less than ideal venues are chosen for the sprint races, or late season sprints if the championship has already been decided (I am not sure whether to bother with this year's Brazil sprint, although on balance I will probably watch it as Interlagos strikes me as one of the best suited circuits to this format).

If we must have sprint races in F1, I would personally prefer it if the sprint race was held on the Friday with qualifying on Saturday as usual. This would mean an alternative method of determining the starting order for the sprint race would be necessary, possibly it could be based on the finishing order from the previous race. This could reasonably be accused of favouring the front runners, but could potentially give some interesting grids in the event of unexpected results or poor finishes/retirements for leading drivers. On the positive side, the sprint race would no longer provide an opportunity to compensate for grid penalties applied after qualifying, which under the current rules makes it too easy for drivers in top cars to make it to the front of the field if they have been penalised.

By 2028 F1 will have reverse grid races at this rate. They're not stopping.

Dont like the weekend being tempered with, but I'd rather see the races extended to 400km than have a 100km "sprint" the day before.

I remember when a GP was something special that I was looking for to happen. Nowadays I feel F1 is starting to crowd my weekends.