Sprint races in place of quali being discussed again

[RAK]

Looks like they're once again bringing up the idea of replacing qualifying with a sprint race. https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/55992727

Just seems to me to be a change in the wrong direction - qualifying as it stands works, more or less and there are things they could do to spice up the action that would be a lot better. Getting rid of some of the worst tracks, like Sochi and Yas Marina, for instance...

[Rob Dylan]

Any shake-up is always welcome for me, but I agree that this weird need to change up qualifying always makes me laugh, as quali is something that most people don't see any immediate need to change (even if better versions perhaps existed in the past).

Although it takes time away from fans, I'm actually happy they're reducing practice times on Friday to reduce the amount of testing, for example.

And I even heard talk of a reverse-grid situation that would take place after either the sprint or regular quali, and reverse grids are just strange to me. Whatever way I work them out in my head, they always seem like bullpoop and unfair to somebody for no meritorious reason. None of that, please.

[dinizintheoven]

It just seems inconceivable that Formula One could be such a ridiculous melange of idiots.

Someone who has access to the old podcasts, make that into a standalone sound clip.

[dr-baker]

It just seems inconceivable that Formula One could be such a ridiculous melange of idiots.

Someone who has access to the old podcasts, make that into a standalone sound clip.

I have access. Any memories of where in the podcasts I could find that quotation?

[Miguel98]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-braced-for-sprint-race-engine-freeze-decisions/5379695/?ic_source=home-page-widget&ic_medium=widget&ic_campaign=widget-1

Things to consider from here:
-> 100KM Sprint Qualifying Race on saturday, for the Canadian, Brazilian and Italian Grand Prix, with qualifying proper moving to Friday, to set the grid for that race.
-> Engine freeze from 2022 until 2025, something that Red Bull has been pushing on quite a bit.
-> Portuguese Grand Prix getting confirmed, which should be announced tomorrow (according to some information in the portuguese press).

On the sprint qualifying race, I'm not exactly sure if its going to work as intended. The problem of the quality of racing and dirty air won't help, and I'm not exactly sure how this will play out into the finances of the teams. F1 is trying to cut costs, and I'm not sure if this will help exactly. More races of MERCEDESWINSLOL won't be exactly good for anyone, and given its basically a 100km dash, considering Mercedes gap to the rest, it shouldn't be a problem dominating the races.

On the engine freeze, I hope they don't aproove it to be honest. Even though I like the idea of making engines more balanced - ala Indycar - freezing them into 2025 because Red Bull don't have a particularly high clue of how to develop their soon-to-be Honda, and they clearly don't want to become Renault's customer team again. The proposed balance of performance for the freeze does not give me any particular hope, as BoP is just another word to say "we screwed up the ruleset, so here is a short-term fix for it".

And Portuguese Grand Prix, yay! Should be without audience, given as things in October didn't really... go smoothly on that front.

[yannicksamlad]

Seems they may award points for it...
In which case, I really really don't like it. The championship should reflect the performance in Grands Prix only, for me. Not performance in quallie, in sprint races, in FP1, in 5 a side, in Esports etc .
And it'll devalue the GP. Takes away from the focus on Sunday for racing

[Fetzie]

Also won't that mean the people who actually pay to sit in the stands get less track action over the weekend, if FP2 is replaced by qualification, and FP3 and quali on Saturday are replaced by a 30 minutes sprint race?

Are they banking on spills in the sprint race leading to Parc Fermé breaking fixes to cars to shuffle the grid around? Sounds like something Liberty Media would think is a good idea.

And if you basically only have one FP session before qualifying, when are they supposed to give development drivers a go in the car?

[yannicksamlad]

Also won't that mean the people who actually pay to sit in the stands get less track action over the weekend, if FP2 is replaced by qualification, and FP3 and quali on Saturday are replaced by a 30 minutes sprint race?

Are they banking on spills in the sprint race leading to Parc Fermé breaking fixes to cars to shuffle the grid around? Sounds like something Liberty Media would think is a good idea.

And if you basically only have one FP session before qualifying, when are they supposed to give development drivers a go in the car?

All good points. I'm not a fan of cutting track time; those cars should be seen as much as possible. And yes; what about those development drivers?

[mario]

On the sprint qualifying race, I'm not exactly sure if its going to work as intended. The problem of the quality of racing and dirty air won't help, and I'm not exactly sure how this will play out into the finances of the teams. F1 is trying to cut costs, and I'm not sure if this will help exactly. More races of MERCEDESWINSLOL won't be exactly good for anyone, and given its basically a 100km dash, considering Mercedes gap to the rest, it shouldn't be a problem dominating the races.

Firstly, I have to say that it is a welcome sight to see the old forum back up - couldn't find the old temporary forum, and thought this place was going to end up vanishing for good...

On a second note, with regards to the sprint qualifying race, right now there are no details on how exactly this system is meant to work - one of the very first tasks the FIA has set itself is to create a working group to try and flesh that idea out into a workable proposal. There's no indication on how this is supposed to interact with other regulations too, such as the tyre allocations, engine and gearbox usage etc. - again, that is very much in the "to be confirmed" category.

With regards to your question about how exactly this is meant to play out in the finances of the team - according to the BBC, Liberty Media have offered to pay each team $75,000 per sprint race. That is proving to be a sticking point, as, even if the cars are not damaged during the race, the teams probably won't be making much, if any, profit from that sprint race - it looks like Liberty Media would be skimming most of the profits from those sprint races off for themselves. If anything, the potential for cars to be damaged in some way during those sprint races suggests most teams would probably end up making a net loss on those sprint races.

[CoopsII]

Sprint races? Sounds like EA Sports have taken over the decision making at Liberty.

[dr-baker]

Sprint races? Sounds like EA Sports have taken over the decision making at Liberty.

EA Sports. It's in the game.

[Rob Dylan]

E-E-E-EEEE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RINq7amRdzM