How the new Sprint F1 works

Now it’s official: change the format of the Sprint Race starting this weekend in the Azerbaijan GP, ​​where the first of 6 scheduled for this 2023 was scheduled. The format change, as announced in recent days, was voted today by the F1 Commission and will be valid for all the Sprint races scheduled this year: the others will be Austria, Belgium, Qatar, the United States (Austin) and Brazil. The goal is to give more fun over the weekend by reducing the weight of free practice, which will be limited to just one session on Friday. The most important change is that Saturday’s Sprint will no longer determine Sunday’s starting grid, which will instead be established by Friday’s qualifying. The starting grid of the Sprint will instead be determined by a mini qualifying which will take place on Saturday itself in place of what used to be free practice 3.

Il Friday there will be a free practice session plus the traditional qualifying session with Q1, Q2 and Q3 which will assign the pole position and determine the starting grid for the GP which will take place on Sunday.

Il Saturday there will be a short-form qualifying (Q1 12 minutes, Q2 10 minutes, Q3 8 minutes) called Sprint Shootout who will establish the starting grid of the Sprint which will take place on Saturday and will assign the points as already established to the first 8 (8 for the first up to 1 for the eighth classified).

Sunday instead it will be the day of the traditional GP.