Formula 1’s divisive sprint race format clearly appeals to the six grand prix promoters who have shelled out a reported $4 million each on top of their annual fees to host them.
But are they – and the spectators who turn up to sprint events – actually getting good value for money.One event which does not seem destined to become a sprint round in the future is the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The event’s long-tenured promoter, Francois Dumontier, admitted while attending the previous sprint weekend in Miami that he had little desire to lobby for his own race to become a sprint in future.
“I am a fan of the current format with free practice, qualifying, and the race,” said Dumontier. “It’s traditional, but it’s the right one.”
“Formula 1 says we see the cars run as often with five sessions on the circuit,” he said. “But in fact, they are shorter.”
A typical grand prix weekend consists of five Formula 1 sessions: two free practice sessions of an hour on Friday, a third practice session on Saturday morning, also an hour long, then the three-stage qualifying session on Saturday afternoon before the grand prix on Sunday.
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The sprint format has changed every single year since it was first introduced midway through the 2021 season. Although the schedule has changed in 2024, the current format largely follows that which was first introduced in 2023.
All combined, a traditional grand prix weekend has a maximum session time total of 345 minutes, or five-and-three-quarter hours. A sprint weekend, on the other hand, has a maximum session duration length of 270 total minutes, or four-and-a-half hours – over an hour less theoretical track time over the three days.
But reduced overall track time may not be a problem if drivers are running more frequently in that time. However, looking at the data, it appears that that is not the case either.
Comparing circuits that have hosted both conventional grand prix weekends and sprint weekends in recent years, an interesting pattern emerges. The host of the latest sprint round on the calendar, Miami, is perhaps the perfect venue for this having been run to two traditional grand prix formats for its first two season in 2022 and 2023 before becoming a sprint round for this season.
Across its first two years with the same practice, qualifying and grand prix format with the same number of entries with sessions held entirely in the dry, Miami saw an average of 3,337 laps completed by all 20 cars in all five sessions accounting for an average of 18,054km covered.
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However, during this year’s sprint round, there was a clear drop in the overall laps completed. Over the three days of running, the teams combined for 2,528 laps in total at 13,678km. That means that the fans who paid to attend this year’s Miami Grand Prix weekend saw only around three-quarters of the total running than those who attended the 2022 and 2023 editions of the event.
At every circuit in which a representative comparison could be made using the current conventional grand prix format and the sprint format used from 2023 onwards, there was an average drop in on-track activity of 19.81% – almost a fifth less.
Naturally, Formula 1’s argument would be that its sprint rounds are giving fans more meaningful and exciting action condensed into a smaller time frame. The current sprint format also means that fans are watching drivers competing under pressure for the vast majority of the weekend. For example, over the 2024 Miami Grand Prix weekend, 106 of the 131 total laps (80.92%) that Max Verstappen logged were completed in competitive sessions – compared to just 53.33% of his 135 laps at the same event the year prior.
Not only do those laps mean more, drivers are more likely to be pushing and on closer to the limit over those competitive sessions compared to a typical practice session. Fans may see more of the cars over a conventional race weekend, but they see the drivers under pressure far less when compared with sprints.
But there is also another element in that the sprint race can act as a ‘spoiler’ of sorts for the main event itself. Especially in a season where the field is as competitive at the front as it is right now, where there are several contenders for the win and podium places, that decreased predictability is at the heart of what makes the current action so enthralling.
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With a 100km race set a day before the grand prix, there are no longer any place for teams to hide their pace or reason to do so. Instead, we often see the cars at the front running hard – within the limits of their tyres – for the entire race on the same compound. This offers a clear idea of the relative race pace of each team and driver, taking a lot of the mystery out of the grand prix itself.
It ultimately comes down to what matters more to fans – the quality or quantity of the on-track action they pay to witness. But when global inflation means that race promoters are charging fans more than ever before for the privilege of attending their events, that is a balance that the sport has to ensure it strikes.
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Erzen (@xenn1)
27th June 2024, 7:55
To this day i’m still fairly neutral towards sprints. I have missed a significant number of them (mostly due to work commitments) but i also never felt the need to make an effort to watch a replay afterwards, as the general sentiment in online forums afterwards was that the sprint race had been a rather monotonous affair
I am however a big fan of Dumontier’s position on the matter because so far it seemed like FOM was essentially ordering all promoters to talk positively about sprint races and pretend they’re excited about them. It felt like we’re being told that we like sprint races in F1 and that not having that position is a bad thing. It’s a breath of fresh air of resistance from the promoter of one of my favourite races every year and i look forward to seeing more of that in the coming months. Who knows, maybe if more promoters back him up then the ones who are paying the premium for the sprint races will also realise that they could do without spending the additional 4mil
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
27th June 2024, 8:10
I don’t think the reduced laps make a difference at home watching on TV, but I can see that aspect being more problematic for those on location.
My issue with sprints is that they’re just a preview of the race. The same drivers are likely to succeed, the race will develop similarly. I don’t know how we could force the sprints to work in a way where they don’t spoil the Sunday race (regulation changes, for example different tyres, no DRS, etc.) but the sprint means the Sunday becomes even more predictable than it already is.
Asd
27th June 2024, 10:45
“I don’t know how we could force the sprints to work in a way where they don’t spoil the Sunday race”
Here’s an idea:
Make the sprint race on a different track configuration wherever that is possible.
Most Arabic Tilkedromes have many alternative routes, even the traditional A1 Ring in Austria has alternative chicanes, the Catalunya tracks had 2 additional chicanes as well.
Make the 2 races different!
Red Andy (@red-andy)
27th June 2024, 11:18
I have long been a proponent of holding sprint races on a different track to the main race. Ideally on a different weekend, and lengthened to about 300km or so.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
27th June 2024, 17:21
Amd if there is no alternative layout, driver it the other way around!
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
27th June 2024, 8:13
I still maintain that the main issue with sprint races (and now sprint qualifying) is that, bar weather shenanigans, the outcome of the sprint sessions are equal to the outcome of the main sessions. Making the latter feel like a “oh yeah, we also have to do this one now” rather than a competitive session.
I wonder if the data confirms this. Let’s say both sprint and race are run in equal dry conditions during the weekend. If you took the sprint results and applied the regular point system to them, would it have mattered significantly at the end of the year for the standings of the championship, or would the results have been more or less the same and could you just have skipped the race entirely and just counted the sprint results as race points instead and gotten the same out of the weekend?
Sham (@sham)
27th June 2024, 8:18
I don’t like the sprint format, for a few reasons.
1) Teams miss out on the practice sessions to get their cars set up. When the teams go racing, I want to see each team and driver able to perform at their best.
2) As mentioned in the article, the sprint race largely predicts what the Grand Prix will be like – removing a lot of the spectacle of the main race.
3) The sheer arrogance of F1 telling me that sprint races are awesome and exciting – when there hasn’t been a good one yet, Actually – Maybe Brazil 2021? But even that just spelt out what to expect on the Sunday.
4) It just feels wrong to me having Grand Prix cars and drivers doing a sprint race – I realise this is not a reason that can be quantified, but it does.
5) The entire premise of a sprint race is that it makes the drivers push to the limit and race hard. The problem is that it doesn’t and they don’t race any harder than usual, because of the regulations (component longevity, tyres that overheat, etc.) and the possibility of damage and what that means within the cost cap. Without this premise, the sprint race is completely irrelevant and just spoils the rest of the weekends action.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th June 2024, 9:31
There’s been a handful of good sprints, one with the rain in austria for example, and if I recall correctly there was another good one this year, which was rated as well as a good main race.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
27th June 2024, 9:36
Just my opinion, but your last reason (5) is the one that I initially felt most compelling. It is indeed rather farcical to call it a sprint when it really doesn’t fulfill the true meaning of the term.
On the other hand, regardless of what it is called, we know what the product actually is, so it’s name is rather moot (though still misleading).
S
27th June 2024, 10:54
1) They should be performing at their best within the same constraints that everyone else has – which they do. Giving them more time just means less is unknown during competition. That’s putting engineering over sport.
2) Practice and qualifying predict what the race will be like too – and even sets the field order which then remains largely similar during the ‘race.’
3) Opinions…. F1 is telling you what ‘fans’ (plural) think. You are one person, and your opinion is unique to you.
Obviously, as F1’s promoter and marketer, Liberty is selective in regard to which fans they tell you about.
4) OK. It feels exactly the same to me regardless of how many laps there are, because the teams treat it the same way as the GP.
5) The premise is what it is – but the teams in F1 have the freedom to not approach it that way. With so little real competition – nobody pushes hard as per the premise, so nobody else does either. This is not specific to the sprint, but also every GP (Qatar 2023 being the possible exception).
Matthew Ellis
27th June 2024, 12:12
Personally I like the combination of less setup time and more competitive time. Would I want every event to include a sprint race? No. But having 1 in 4 race weekends including a sprint feels like a good balance.
I do think the ‘media day’ running that is thinly veiled testing should go – have one or two mid season test sessions (of maybe three days each) instead where all teams take part.
Another thing given the longer seasons is for every team to be required to substitute each main driver for a rookie at least once (possibly twice) for a full race weekend. The driver championship would be unaffected because they would all still complete the same number of races, but the sport desperately needs to give upcoming drivers more of a chance to prove their worth as has been demonstrated by Bearman and Lawson recently.
AlanD
27th June 2024, 15:04
You spell out a lot of the problems with sprint races, in particular that it is just a preview of the Sunday event and the way the F1 promoters tell us that we enjoy them really. I strongly feel the sprint races should be kept out of the WDC points. There is an argument for having a separate sprint championship, but I don’t feel it right that certain tracks score higher in the WDC than others, (as a result of sprint and GP results at thosae circuits being largely the same). I also think there is a lot to be said for simply having one qualifying and a reverse grid for the sprint, to see if those fast drivers can actually overtake anything.
Regarding your point 4, how it feels wrong to have an F1 car race a sprint, I agree. F1 was once all about the engineering challenge, not just of building a fast car, but also of building one which is durable enough to go a substantial distance, 150miles, where things like tyre wear and fuel loads were factors in how the cars were optimised for racing over that distance. I wonder how we’d feel if, say, Williams decided they were unlikely to get any podiums next year so they’d build a car which was optimised purely for qualifying and sprint races, and they would also take their new engines to coincide with the sprint races, because a few headlines in those would be better than a consistently solid job down in 14th and 16th.
BMW P85 V10
27th June 2024, 19:35
I would like to add a number 6 wherein you could argue that having sprint races on several but not all race weekends can contribute to falsifying competition. With the knowledge of fro example RBR not performing well on tight bumpy circuits, FIA could select sprint races in such way that it would always would be the same team strugling in those sprint weekend giving the competition the opprtunity to score more points and gain more ground in the standings.
That said, I think the sprint races are also there because there’s a lack of supporting events (like Porsche supercup) on many of the newly added events. People pay a lot of money only to see 1 race and some praktice sessions (sometimes barely used because of tire savings).
How to make things more attractive?
I think back at the late 70’s where BMW had developped a car that didn’t fit the rule change in class it was built for. They launched the M1 Procars series to go parralel with the F1 calandar and have F1 drivers compete in cars that where all the same.
I think this could make the F1 weekend more attractive for spectators and give the teams the opportunity to run a normal race weekend.
I’d say that the car shouldn’t be made or disigned by any of the current F1 teams. I think many car manufacturers would be interested in delivering cars for a F1 drivers cup race.
baasbas
28th June 2024, 9:36
@BMW P85 V10
The current field in M1 procars instead of a sprint? I’d watch the &$*&#^* out of that..
Throw in an end of season Bercy kart race as well please with some invitational drivers added
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
27th June 2024, 8:37
The sprint bashing narrative is one that many agree with (myself included; hate them), but any discussion after “promoters are willing to pay 4 million each” is pointless.
24 million each season with little effort from F1, and more promotion opportunities (surprise winners, unexpected results, etc). That’s just an overwhelmingly positive net gain…
Dex
27th June 2024, 9:45
Teams have bigger expenses though, potentially much bigger in case of crashes etc. They wanted cca 20 sprints a year, but there doesn’t seem to be enough interest…
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
27th June 2024, 14:13
F1 itself doesn’t care.
Dex
27th June 2024, 17:38
This is why they haven’t increased the number to 10 two years ago. The teams have opposed it.
bosyber (@bosyber)
27th June 2024, 15:35
Well, it is an issue for F1 promoters if they feel they need to add 4 million to the sum when talking about promoters of races like Spa, or Monza, or indeed Canada, as well as Silverstone, which are quite unique and with a history of likely interesting races but also regularly have trouble making sure they have the budget to host the races but their extra revenue from that investment turns out to be very limited.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
27th June 2024, 19:45
@fer-no65 Not if it makes those races duller to watch. Then one has to assess whether one is losing 24 million in fees elsewhere.
Matt (@hollidog)
27th June 2024, 8:46
Counterpoint, 2 thirds of the laps run in qualifying are off the pace and unexciting. I wouldn’t calle these competitive.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th June 2024, 9:35
Yes, even in competitive sessions nowadays a lot of laps aren’t certainly at the limit, even in races, if you take for example monaco, especially this year, there was very little pushing by anyone.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
27th June 2024, 17:25
In a grandprix race on sunday cars go around at 5 to 9 seconds slower than they can actually do. It doesnt even matter what compound tyre they use at that point, laptime wise (it does on overtaking and defending tho)
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
27th June 2024, 19:44
@hollidog Plus a lot of laps in the sprint – especially by drivers finding themselves in the bottom half of the grid with little incentive to do more than avoid being overtaken by the next driver along the chain.
Dex
27th June 2024, 9:40
There’s no data that can explain human emotion. I don’t like the format at all, that’s what I know. It demands too much of my weekend, and it kills my excitement for the real race. Someone else might feel differently.
It’s all about data today, data, data, data… Data kept telling Mercedes that their car was a sure winner, yet they looked for “understanding the car” for almost three years.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
27th June 2024, 10:16
actually data can describe human emotionally to the nano second. But emotion isn’t all there is to humans, otherwise we would be a bunch of robots, pluggable and programmable.
The spring format will diminish the main races because it already informs the person who wants to be entertained about what is to come, its premature, if you like. Instead of denouement –catharsis is achieved, you have cheap thrills and easy payouts.
Its easy to see that angle, but Liberty, guys like Toto, big money investors don’t care about quality, they only care about quantity, which is $$$. This is the whole premise behind trying to appeal to every potential demographic in hollywood, and the idiot politics in play today, it pretends to be inclusive, but it’s really a power play, a way to fleece more and more people. But it’s starting to fall away, especially in continents like Africa, where the appeal, is beginning to erode the interests of the EU and US/K.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
27th June 2024, 10:18
The spring format will diminish the main races because it already informs the person who wants to be entertained about what is to come, its premature, if you like. Instead of denouement –catharsis is achieved, you have cheap thrills and easy payouts.
But, no, big data, data analysis can accurately describe emotion, impulse, and is used to accurately predict future events, so as some people might have the ability to steer those events in the manner they see fit. Like an almanac on steroids.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
27th June 2024, 10:18
*sprint format
S
27th June 2024, 10:38
If there is a major problem with sprints, it’s not the format but the cars and the way F1 operates.
F1 focuses too little on the quality of their on-track racing product, and too much on the freedom for teams to engineer and manage the fun out of it.
With proper racing cars and consistently high quality racing, they quite possibly would never have introduced sprints at all.
Many have made the comment that sprints act as a sort of spoiler for the GP – but seem to gloss over the fact that qualifying and practice do too. Likewise every other F1 event on the calendar, given how static relative performance is throughout the F1 field (especially at the front) – and that occurs across multiple seasons at a time.
And while there is mention of promoters charging customers more than ever for the privilege of attending an F1 event – they do so primarily to cover the truly excessive fee that F1 charges them for the rights to hold that event.
Besides, it’s not specific to F1 – all businesses and corporations do this now. Maximising profit is everything in today’s world, and the consumer is always the one to foot the bill.
Tristan
27th June 2024, 10:43
Nice analysis! I was wondering what data you’d use and it’s really well done. Completely agree with the conclusion that it’s quality vs quantity. I know if I had a 3 day pass what format I’d be more entertained by, as much as people dislike it.
mirko007
27th June 2024, 10:54
Fans have to find something to rationalize why they don’t like something. No need, feelings are irrational. Don’t like it, we should accept different feelings.
New one is that it will show the form before the real race :D Have you heard about qualifying? That kind of predicts the car performance.
I like the sprint concept. fresh tires, low fuel, no pit stop strategy, overcut, undercut… go for it! It doesn’t produce fireworks every time, but that is live ‘sport’ for you.
The ability to change the setup for the Grand Prix portion of the weekend is a major improvement.
After all that you still have ‘real’ qualy and the race.
mirko007
27th June 2024, 11:41
I mean opinions… feelings… we all have a passion for this sport :)
As an atendee of a few grand prixes I have to say that I enjoyed comparing long runs on mediums for a few teams. Seeing the difference of 10 lap 1.23.08 vs 1.23.17 9 laps run really brings a joy to my cold calculated heart.
That doesn’t have give any hint of a potential performance on a race day because a fleet of sim drivers back in the base will fine-tune, maximize and optimize the setup for the bigger teams
PeterG
27th June 2024, 16:36
It’s not a new one as thats been one of the biggest criticisms since the very first sprint race.
Having a race before the race gives viewers as well as teams far more race relevant data in terms of tyre wear & how cars are going to handle race situations with more fuel in the cars. It’s effectively giving you the opening stint of the GP the day before the GP which not only gives you that data but also makes the actual opening stint of the GP that bit less interesting because it makes it that bit more predictable.
Even with the 3 hours of practice & hour or so of qualifying we still go into the GP on a normal weekend a bit in the dark because we don’t know exactly how the tyres are going to act, We don’t know exactly where everyone’s race pace is & we don’t know how easy or not overtaking is going to be.
On a sprint weekend that all tends to be answered on the Saturday in the sprint and that alone makes that opening stint of the GP that bit less interesting & bit more predictable because we’ve effectively already seen it 24 hours earlier.
Even F1 & teams at one point started using the term ‘a sprint race is basically the start of the race with a 24 hour red flag before the restart’.
But it doesn’t really because qualifying pace often differs from race pace.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
27th June 2024, 19:43
I’ve heard of qualifying. I’ve seen over many years that the qualifying and race have quite different patterns of performance.
A sprint race, which is essentially the length of a stint of a two-stop race, is very good at determining the pace. It’s especially bad because the few surprises a sprint race may happen to have tend not to get replicated because everyone’s had a dress rehearsal.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
27th June 2024, 11:29
This is just what Liberty want isn’t it?
Less time watching cars going round and round means more time for buying merchandise, consuming overpriced refreshments etc etc.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
27th June 2024, 19:41
@nullapax More specifically, Liberty wants the money associated with the sprint race title sponsor.
tielemst
27th June 2024, 12:23
I think the only sprint race that would actually be a good idea would be Monaco. But then instead of the sunday race, not on top of.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
27th June 2024, 13:13
I’m pleased for the data that it’s been watching the sprint races so I don’t have to.
Why not? “Within the limits of their tyres.” It’s not sprint racing, it’s sprint management.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
27th June 2024, 13:35
its ridiculous, the tires can’t even survive the whole of a qualifying lap. They are less than qualifying tires.
Most chemical reactions have some form of enthalpy associated with them. Too much energy in to the tires, and equilibrium is disrupted, chemical bonds begin to peel away. Pirelli have just found a way to destroy tires, with out them literally exploding (compound only). The behavior is probably once you pass the point of no return, it requires slowing down quite a bit (because equilibrium is achieved at a lower melting point, than what is initially required) to bring down the reaction (slow) inside the compound, slow down much more than you could in a race, so it forces drivers to constantly play with their braking points and lines. I would surmise that probably the tighter tracks, with fewer lines of approach are the bigger problems for the drivers, like street circuits (ie, forget what you heard about the curbs).
If the tires were more linear in their response, or equilibrium was achieved at the same temperature, disintegration begins, than I think Red Bull would be much more profitable, and I think people would be picking up on the nature of the tires easier than they are this year. Also the higher breakdown threshold keeps the illusion that the tires are not complete garbage, which they seem to be.
And the tires, are the reason, I am most sure, why Red Bull dropped so hard, so fast during Miami, and the commentators starting running their mouths about curbs. When ever their is a political agenda a foot, it always comes with happy trigger terms/phrases, which are used to ‘explain change’. The way story telling has always been used to control people’s expectations and perceptions.
Adrian Annable
27th June 2024, 15:58
I have watched every gp, since 15 years old.
I am now 61.
Some rules are justifiable, but not a race within a race, extra points and more problems for Sunday, just keeps giving to the dominant teams.
The old format is the best.
Please don’t change which is already the best.
PeterG
27th June 2024, 16:39
The fact teams & drivers don’t really seem to take the sprint races or results all that seriously tells you all you need to know about how irrelevant & pointless the sprint gimmick format is.
You don’t even see drivers really celebrate sprint poles, wins or great results and things like Piastri’s ‘win’ been in a sprint just gets forgotten because it’s completely irrelevant as it wasn’t a real win and wasn’t in the proper race & he himself has said he doesn’t really consider it a win.
The whole sprint gimmick is just that a gimmick and nobody ever really takes such things seriously because they just come across as contrived & useless!
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
27th June 2024, 19:32
The sprint races really don’t feel like they give quality or quantity. As a TV viewer, I’d prefer either the traditional 3-practice format, or to swap out the sprint for something in a non-F1 car that gave the drivers reason to show their competitive side (preferably with a variety of things across the season rather than one thing that happened to be picked because of a sponsor – which is basically what sprint racing in F1 is).
Esteban
28th June 2024, 4:58
Bring back V10s.