F1 - It's a marathon not a sprint...isn't it?

Marathon or Sprint?

It was announced this week that F1 will be featuring six (yes that's six) sprint races in the 2023 schedule. 

Next season we will see the format rearing it's head at Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, Qatar, the USA and Brazil.  

This format seems to split the fan base and does so in a couple of ways.

These are basically the divide between those for and against the format all together and then those that kinda like it but feel it only works at certain tracks.

In fact the list announced already raises some concern as while Brazil was a good example of a sprint race, we're not so sure how well one will fare in Baku.

For anyone new to the party, the sprint format was introduced last year as a way to inject some action into each of the three days of a race weekend.

In a sprint-less weekend, the Friday sessions are for the die-hard fans as they just consist of free practice where the teams & drivers will be dialing in the settings needed for the rest of the weekend.  

Saturday sees more practice as well as qualifying with the main event of the race being on Sunday.

Cheat sheet to sprint weekends

A sprint weekend moves the qualification session to the Friday.  We have a practice session to start things off before the qualifying takes place.

This sets the order for the sprint race.

The sprint race follows on Saturday alongside one more practice session with the finishing order of the sprint race dictating the starting order for the race itself.

Sprints are 100km long so equate to roughly 30 minutes of racing meaning that , while permitted, pit stops are not needed. 

Points are given out to the top eight positions however no podium ceremony takes place for the sprint.

So, what are the problems with this?

Let's put aside the whole "why do we have to mess with F1" type of view.  

We're not saying this is an invalid argument but it's not one we'll pursue here.

If we go from the position that sprints are part of the sport now then some of the main objections are as follows.

So the pole sitter won't necessarily be the one at the front on Sunday?

This is the bone of contention for a lot of folk (yours truly included).

For as long as qualifying and races have existed, the car that goes fastest in qualifying gets the honor of securing pole position and leading the race off on Sunday.

Last year this was changed and now pole position on a sprint weekend will be deemed to be the driver starting at the front of the sprint.  Winning the sprint secures you "P1" for Sunday.

"Pole"

Not only does this not feel right it also makes a right mess of the historical stats comparison when we start looking at pole to win ratios of drivers.  If a driver gets pole, finishes 4th in the sprint, then recovers to win the race that would still count as a pole to win conversion which seems a bit nuts.

Now we'll need to use P1 to win for sprint weekends, right?  

Well that doesn't work either as the idea behind this stat is to look at drivers who can light it up for a single lap shootout in qualifying yet also turn that into race pace and secure the win.  

If we do P1 to Win ratio then you're not taking qualifying into account at all.

Yes, I'm a stat nerd and this type of thing bothers me. Not sorry.

Isn't a sprint just the first part of a race that gets an overnight pause?

Another issue with the sprint format is that it provides a chance for a driver to recover from a poor qualifying session and gain some position back ahead of the main event.  

Conversely, it means that a stellar performance in qualifying might get undone in the sprint - think of Kevin Magnussen in Brazil.  

Superb effort to get his Haas on pole, yet he did not get to start the race from there.  

Had he been on pole for the race, he may have been able to be a bit more aggressive in defending the lead which brings us onto the next issue...

It all gets a bit processional

Choo-choo

As crashing out of a sprint could lead to you not being able to take part in the main race, it's understandable that drivers (and probably the instructions from the teams) are a bit more conservative.

Yes we have seen some overtaking action, but in the main the action falls off after the initial few laps.

With the teams now under a strict cost cap, the impact of a crash in the sprint just isn't worth it.  Especially for a midfield or rear-of-field driver given that only the top few positions pay points.  

Other than maybe starting a couple of places higher up on Sunday, the risk-reward pay off just isn't there.

What could be done to address this?

Anyone got any?

Well F1 has already stated that they are on the lookout for ways in which to tweak the format.  

In fact they are thinking of allowing DRS to be used earlier to keep the pack closer together. 

That's a start, but what radical ideas could be considered to improve sprints?

After a fair bit of googling the subject, here are some of my favorite suggestions for improving the sprint format even if some of them are a little crazy.

This way for crazy!

1 - Have qualifying set both the sprint and the race

I'm a fan of this one for sure! 

Qualifying now does what it has always done which is to dictate the starting positions for the race, or in this case the races.

Pole is back to being pole and there is no ambiguity in the stats anymore.

2 - Reverse Grid

My idea which I put on the podcast was to use reverse finishing order from the previous race to determine the sprint order.  Qualifying remains purely for the race.

It's been put forward by others and after some research I've seen it's already been shot down by F1.

Essentially I want to see qualifying used to set the race order so I'm OK to go for option 1 although I do think that the reverse sprint could be fun.

3 - Elimination

I found a few sources in favor of the car at the back being eliminated every 2 laps until only the top ten remain.

It would add some extra drama to the rear of the field and maybe some more TV time for those teams which would certainly please the sponsors.

4 - Bonus Points for overtakes

There is already a set of stats tracking the number of overtakes so why not create some bonus points for them in sprints?

Maybe rather than done on a sprint by sprint basis it would be a single set of bonus points after all sprints are completed and given out based on where you finish on the overtake leaderboard.

5 - Separate Sprint Championship

This is a big one!

The points pay out for positions one through ten but do not impact the World Drivers Championship.  Instead, they feed a new Sprint Championship.  

They continue to count towards a single Constructors title though.

At the end of a sprint there us a podium and it gets it's own trophy at the end of the season.

While this one might be a bit "out there", the one thing it preserves is the WDC.  All the new tweaks are only impacting the sprint championship and the fans of a pure drivers championship get to keep hold of what they love about the sport.

Whether the sprint format is tweaked or not this year, one thing is for sure - we'll have more of them this year than ever before.