'Not Ideal Or Necessary': Martin Brundle Comments On Current Sprint Weekend Format
F1Friday, 27 October 2023 at 07:00
Former F1 driver and Sky Sports reported Martin Brundle shared his problem concerning the sprint races after the 2023 United States Grand Prix and Qatar Grand Prix weekends.
The United States Grand Prix sprint race has not been seen as the most interesting race of the season by many Formula One fans.
This triggered another wave of criticism towards the sprint weekend format. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner called for an improvement to the sprint race, suggesting reversing of the top 10 drivers.
Max Verstappen suggested that sprint races take away the magic from the race on Sunday and mentioned he does not get excited by sprint race wins as much.
Joining the wave of criticism is former F1 driver and co-commentator on SkySports F1 Martin Brundle, who does not like the short preparation time for teams during sprint weekends. He wrote in his SkySports column:
"There's no doubt that the sprint format events put the teams under a lot of pressure, and overall, we don't get particularly positive feedback from them."
fThe format of the sprint weekend is one practice session on Friday followed by Qualifying. Sprint shootout followed by Sprint race on Saturday and then the main race on Sunday.
"With just one practice session before the specification and set-up are locked in by Parc Fermė rules, especially at a relatively unknown circuit like Lusail in Qatar or a bumpy circuit such as COTA in Austin, this leaves them underprepared, which is far from ideal with such complex cars."
Some teams like Aston Martin and Haas have brought significant car upgrades to the United States Grand Prix weekend. However, they did not perform well as they did not have enough Practice Session time to adjust their cars.
"With two qualifying sessions and two races to come, some drivers were consigned to a difficult car for the rest of the weekend [after practice on Friday]."
While some drivers like Lewis Hamilton said they like only one practice session, Brundle thinks it is "not ideal or necessary." If teams get the practice session wrong, they are essentially doomed for the whole weekend.
"This is not ideal or necessary, and while I don't like us to keep messing with the format, we must make some changes for next season and beyond. It's too much of a lottery which has far reaching consequences."
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