Sprint qualifications: ultimate user manual
The British Grand Prix this weekend will be the birthplace of the first qualifying races, tested this year. If their operation is still unclear to you, MotorsInside is providing a summary!
New organization of weekends
Friday has never been a source of enthusiasm for the public, as the free practice sessions represent too few issues.
The arrival of sprint races will shake up the program and maybe awaken the excitement of the spectators.
In this case, only one free session will remain the first of the three days of the event: it will take place in the morning and will last, like this year, a short hour.
The Q1, Q2, and Q3 format then replaces the second free practice hour on Friday. The current qualifying format will then be used to determine the starting grid order… on Saturday!
This starting grid will be for the famous sprint race, the winner of which will be credited not with a Grand Prix victory, but with the pole position for the Sunday race, which remains the main event.
The new format in a few numbers
If the formats newly applied to Friday do not differ much from today, Saturday will be upset accordingly:
-en lieu et place des séances chronométrées, c’est une course de 100km (approximativement 17 tours selon les circuits) qui aura lieu. Pas de changement de pneu obligatoire.
-les trois premiers de la course sprint du samedi obtiendront des points: 3 pour la pole, 2 pour la deuxième place et 1 pour la troisième.
This is the first time in the history of Formula 1 that pole position earns points.
-la matinée de samedi sera le théâtre de la seconde et dernière séance libre, longue d’une heure. Au moins pour ce week-end, fini les 3 périodes de tests d’avant qualifications.
Is there a show in sight?
Difficult to answer. It would be crazy to take as an example the completely crazy final sprint in Baku, run over two laps.
Many observers, as well as some pilots, have doubts about the show offered by this new format.
Lewis Hamilton suspects that the best will stay ahead, with no major upheaval expected…At Ferrari, they believe that this will completely shuffle the deck.
The governing bodies have in any case agreed that this new format will not determine the world champion title too early this year… even less on a Saturday!
The verdict will be given on Saturday, 18th July at Silverstone!
