'No Satisfaction To Win Sprint For Me': Verstappen Unhappy With Sprint Weekends

Saturday, 28 October 2023 at 20:30

Red Bull Racing F1 driver Max Verstappen has again criticized the sprint weekend format, this time saying there is no satisfaction for him from winning the sprint race.

Max Verstappen expressed his disappointment with Sprint races right after winning last Saturday's Sprint race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin.

The Dutchman said the Sprint race "takes away the magic" from the race on Sunday as they basically uncover what will happen in the first third of the race on Sunday in terms of the pace of various teams.

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The 26-year-old now came with a comparison of Formula One to football (soccer). Both are well-established sports. However, Verstappen points to the fact there are no new rules introduced to football.

"In football, they don't change the rules, it's been like that for 100 years. Why do we suddenly need to come up with other things to try and make it entertaining?"

Formula One has been coming up with new ideas to make the sport more interesting for the fans. The Red Bull driver thinks that something that works does not need to be changed.

"I always say why do we need to try and invent something? I think our product works if you just make sure that the cars are competitive and they will stay the same for a long time."

Sprint races are 100km long, and drivers receive far fewer points for winning them compared to regular races on Sunday. The three-time World Champion stated he gets no satisfaction from winning the sprint race.

"There's no satisfaction to win a sprint for me. You cross the line and say: 'All right, well, tomorrow is the race, the main one'. That's how it goes."

While Red Bull's team principal Christian Horner likes the idea, just suggests the format needs more fine-tuning, Verstappen suggests we should get rid of sprint weekends completely.

"I think we should just get rid of the sprint weekend and then everyone can just set up their cars normally because it wouldn't have happened on a normal race weekend."