MADRID, 25 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Formula 1 Commission has confirmed this Tuesday adjustments for its Sprint for the six events it will carry out in the World Championship this season, starting with the imminent Azerbaijan GP and turning it into “an independent feature” of the end of race week when such format is used, without the result impacting the grid of the Grand Prix itself.
“The Sprint made its debut in 2021, with the original format, qualifying moved to Friday and the grid set for a new 100km race on Saturday, which in turn determined the starting order for the main event on Saturday. Sunday”, explained F1 in a press release.
“However, the adjustments for this year mean that the Sprint will effectively become a separate feature of race weekends when the format is used, with the result having no impact on the Grand Prix grid itself.” Commission added.
Thus, Fridays will now “include an FP1 session and a standard qualifying session to establish the grid for the Grand Prix on Sunday, while Saturdays will include the continuous 100 km race with an additional previous qualifying session” and that it will call Sprint Shootout.
“The Shootout will be a shorter session than traditional qualifying, with SQ1 scheduled to last 12 minutes, SQ2 to last 10 minutes and SQ3 to eight minutes, and replaces the previous FP2 seen on the Saturday morning of Sprint weekends. New tires are mandatory for each phase, with medium for SQ1 and SQ2, and soft for SQ3”, the text has indicated.
“As the F1 Sprint is now contained within the race weekend, and any incidents will not compromise starting positions for the Grand Prix, drivers should have more incentive to advance in the 100km race, which typically lasts about half an hour,” the note said.
Points for the Sprint race remain the same, with eight awarded to the winner, seven to second place, six to third and so on down to one in eighth; both drivers and teams will record points in their respective championships.
In addition to the Baku street circuit for the imminent Azerbaijan GP, the other Sprint venues will be Austria (Red Bull Ring), Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps), Qatar (Lusail Circuit), United States (Circuit of the Americas) and Sao Paulo (Interlagos)).
The process for applying penalties in Sprint events has been established as follows: any grid penalties incurred in the first practice or qualifying will be applied to the race; any grid penalties incurred in the Sprint Shootout will be applied to the Sprint; while any grid penalties incurred in the Sprint will be applied to the race.