On Tuesday, the change that F1 will apply from the weekend itself was made official, at Azerbaijan F1 GP in Bakuwhich will change the format of the weekends with sprint races held throughout this 2023 course, with a total of 6 events of this type on the calendar for the current season.
He F1 2023’s Baku GP will go down in history for having two qualifying sessions: one of these, the one on Friday, will be used to establish Sunday’s starting grid arrangement. AND Saturday will be a completely independent daywith a sprint qualifying session that will serve to establish the starting grid for the sprint race, which will only distribute points and will not change the starting order of Sunday’s race.
This is the old format and this is the new one that will be released this weekend at the Baku GP of F1 2023:
This is the format before the sprint weekend
– On Friday there was Free Practice 1 and qualifying. The ‘qualy’ served to order the starting grid for Saturday’s sprint race.
– On Saturday there is Free Practice 2 and a sprint race. The final order of the race served to establish the grid for Sunday.
– On Sunday, long race.
New weekend format in sprint
From Baku
– On Friday Free Practice 1 and a classification will be held. The qualy will be Q1, Q2 and Q3 and will dictate the starting positions for Sunday’s race.
– Saturday: Classification ‘shoot-out’ and sprint race.
Saturday will be an independent day, because whatever happens, the starting order of Sunday’s race will not change in relation to the positions obtained in the ‘qualy’ on Friday. The ‘shoot-out’ classification will be shorter, as well as Q1, Q2 and Q3, and will only serve to establish the starting order for Saturday’s sprint race. Saturday’s sprint race will award 8 points to 1st, 7 to 2nd and so on to 8th, which will earn 1 point. And on the same Saturday, the sprint race will be held.
– Sunday: Long race. Same points as a normal race (25 for the winner and 1 point for the fastest lap if he stays in the Top-10). The order of the starting grid is determined by Friday’s classification.
Why was the weekend format changed to sprint?
The main reason for the change is to add emotion. Sprint racing has come to F1 to add action so each day of the Grand Prix has a real impact on what happens over the weekend., leaving free practice days only on Fridays. In the old format but, F1 has learned that some drivers and teams are conservative in the sprint race so as not to lose too many positions before the starting grid on Sunday.
In addition, the previous Free Practice 2 on Saturday morning has lost its meaning and importance. So, they remove Free 2 and the new sprint weekend will only have a few Free Practices to test, something that means the teams have less time to draw conclusions and opens a window of opportunity for more unexpected things to happen.
In this regard, by removing the result of the sprint race from influencing the grid on Sunday, F1 wants to increase the action in the short rounds on Saturday. The drivers will no longer play with their position for Sunday in these sprint races on Saturday and in theory they will be able to attack more and take more risks compared to the previous format.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
