F1 drivers share their views on the statement made by Stefano Domenicali about increasing sprint races and having shorter races to capture the young market.
In the social media age of TikTok and Instagram Reels, people are always looking out of things that are short in nature. Their mind is now regulated for shorter videos as they are used to seeing influencers making short-form videos, whether it is for entertainment or information.
It has hit the sporting market as well. And F1 boss Domenicali wants to embrace the evolution to capture the young generation. The sport has already seen lots of movements to gain their attention. In the bid to capture them further, the Italian is open to having more sprint races.
Even though there has always been a mixed response on short-form races, but the argument of qualifying/racing being much better than practice sessions, it has found some support. F1 released the calendar for 2026 F1 sprint events and for now, they are sticking with six.
But for the future, they indicated of an increase with a rumour floating about 10 from 2027 onward. The F1 racers are divided in their opinion – as expected. While they understand the monetary benefits, the purist in them will never die down.
Here’s what some of them stated –
Andrea Kimi Antonelli: “It’s a tough one. I think personally, Sprint weekends are fun because you have a lot of activity. You have to be on point straight away because you have one practice, then qualifying, and then you go into a Sprint race. But I think shorter races — I don’t think it would really work, because already now with long races, we do one-stop strategy with the tyres we have. They would have to implement so many more rules for a shorter race in terms of pit stops and so on, because I don’t think it would change so much. I think also with the longer race, probably you have more time to build your race. But yeah, I don’t really know. I can’t really give a clear answer on this, but that’s my thought. But Sprint weekends are fun, so that wouldn’t be bad — having more of them.
“I think yeah [less track time due to sprint for rookies is difficult]. I mean, it obviously depends on the track. If it’s a new track, it’s a bit tougher for rookies because they have to get up to speed — like we had to do in a couple of occasions this year, such as China, Miami, and Austin as well with Sprint. So sometimes it’s tough. But if you have the confidence, you’re able to build up into the session and find your rhythm pretty quick. Compared to more experienced drivers, it can be a bit of a disadvantage because you don’t know the detail of the track, where you can make most of the time and where you can lose the most. But overall, if you’re able to get up to speed quickly, and especially if you have the confidence, you can still deliver a good result even with one practice.”
Franco Colapinto: “Yeah, I think they are just doing a great job. Stefano did a great job in bringing the sport to where it is now. He’s a great leader, and I really appreciate the effort that everyone is doing to try to make it better for the fans, for everyone here. It’s getting bigger and bigger, Formula 1. If it’s from someone, it’s thanks to them and the effort. I can’t comment too much on that — there are a lot of new things happening in the sport and they are bringing a lot of new people to it. I think we are all very grateful for the effort they have been doing in the past to make the sport better and to bring it to where it is now. I just enjoy driving.
“So if we keep driving and keep doing a lot of laps, I’m happy with that. It doesn’t really matter what session it is. I think we are used to two weekends — it’s very short, very small amount of laps before quali — and you need to be very quick on top of it. It’s always tricky when you don’t know the track. I had that last year. I think Austin and Qatar were Sprints. I didn’t know the track, so it’s tricky, but I still had a good result there in Sprint Quali in Austin. So it’s not — I think if you prep well nowadays, the simulator also helps a lot. So yeah, if you can be on top of it and do a good prep, it really helps. We are used to not having a lot of laps in practice, so it’s not too bad, I think.”
Fernando Alonso: “Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, I will be on the other side — I will be in front of the TV when that happens. So I don’t know. I don’t think it’s a problem with the sport. So probably it’s not needed to change, but Stefano knows better than anyone. So if he thinks that it’s needed, we are in good hands with him in this kind of decision. But I don’t know. Also, football matches are a little bit long. When I sit in front of the TV, I’m not watching the 90 minutes fully concentrated. I go to the kitchen, come back — there’s always some moments of distraction, and no one is talking about having 60-minute football matches or something like that. So it’s a problem of society and the kids, but not the sport. So probably it’s not needed, the change.
“I think, as Kimi said, probably you need to do your own race and you need to find your way into the race to go back to your natural position at the end of the race if you execute it well. If it’s too short, like in some of the Sprint races, if you start with a bad qualifying or whatever, there is not time to execute anything. It’s difficult to follow — all the cars have the same tyre age, there’s no possibility to recover places. So the longer race gives you that possibility, that freedom on the strategy. But yeah, as I said, it’s a difficult topic. Probably refuelling would be the best thing — I’ve said many times. I know this is totally the opposite direction of how it’s going. But when you can choose your fuel load and have different strategies, that changes completely the way the race unfolds and that creates an incredible, attractive strategy and races.”
Esteban Ocon: “I think it is interesting to always think about what could be best for our sport. For sure, I have been here now for a long time, I have seen different format of races, sprint racing being introduced, the ATA programme with different tyres, the old sprint format as well. A lot has been, has been tried. I think it’s good that we get consulted a little bit in this with Stefano. My opinion is that there’s no need to make a big change about what we have. I think going to a MotoGP stage would be a bit extreme for sure, to have a sprint weekend at every race. And I don’t think necessarily the show will be much better for sure. As a fan, what you want to see is more racing. We live in such a consumer world now that we want to see more spectacle, more show, and more frequently. When we are on Netflix and we see a series we are like ‘it’s too long to wait for season two’. That’s basically how the world is now. But it’s also nice to wait patiently and expect the race.
“A grand prix is a big thing and I’m a bit more into that, I really like to wait a good amount of time to be excited again. But then I would agree with Stefano that maybe some of the races are a bit long, let’s say the ones that are, more than two hours or like Singapore or stuff like that. Maybe shortening a little bit, it would not make any difference to the spectacle or the show, but that’s how it’s been historically for so long. But a race like Monza, making it shorter, or a race like Spa, that would be too short. Because you need to have the amount of time to have the strategy paying off at the end of the races, like we in Zandvoort. There the last 10 laps is always a crazy race and it is because it is quite long in the end. And then we always meet again with the strategy, that’s where the show is. It needs to be looked carefully for sure but I am sure FOM and FIA will look at it properly, ask us what we think and we go from there. But not everything has to be completely changed in my opinion. But that’s only my opinion. We need it [practice] for sure to set the car up and to be 100% sure of what we do before we go into quali and even with that practice, it is still not easy to set the car.
“When we go to sprint weekend, we set the car up and then you pray that it will be fine but that’s also what a fan likes, just little bit unexpected, making us and the team little bit uncomfortable I guess, and that overall gives more spectacle. I agree and understand as a fan that FP1 is not necessarily the session you watch, maybe less practice but similar format also could work, two FP3 and quali as it is now and then the racing on Sunday, or only an FP2, that could work. At the moment it is same for everyone, that’s what I see. That’s the most important for me that you work with the format you get. It is true it [qualifying be first] has never been discussed but it could be fun. That would definitely be a fun weekend. That would spice things up for sure, it relies a lot of who has got a good simulator, who has done the homework properly before coming to the week. I think every now and then that would be quite interesting to see. It’s like a Super Pole kind of thing. Reminds me a little bit of that where you had like one shot, except there was practice back then. So that was stress out teams, I can tell you. But it will be good.”
Alexander Albon: “I don’t mind it, I am open to ideas. He talked about possibly reserve grids and what not. We have to take all into account. I think we are doing more races than ever before…personally I would like to get…I think he also said no practice sessions as well? I don’t mind getting rid of Thursdays, I don’t know about you guys (laughs). I am not opposed to it [what Stefano has suggested]. I would like to see kind of what his thoughts are around it. We haven’t spoken deeply about it…I don’t know when he wants…if it’s to action or just a general conversation he had in that interview, but personally speaking, I am up for it.”
George Russell: “I do feel we have to evolve, because the sport is changing, and I’m very open to new ideas. I feel that you always have to give it a chance before you dismiss anything. I was never a major fan of sprint races. Now I actually prefer them over usual grands prix. It makes every on-track activity much more meaningful whereas some Friday feels redundant with teams running high-fuel or low-fuel, high power or low power. And it feels like too much unnecessary time on track. I do feel some races potentially are maybe too long, if you look a race in Monza is an hour and 15 minutes whereas a race in Singapore can be almost two hours. So that also makes a bit of sense as well. I do trust on Stefano and the team and I am very much open to new ideas and I would always want to give it the benefit of the doubt.”
Charles Leclerc: “Actually I am not so aware about it, I just saw something, so before commenting a lot about in detail, I would like to understand what Stefano was…his intentions and what does he thinks when he spoke about. I don’t think, though, that we need significant changes. I think F1 is going extremely well and in the last years, it really grew. For sprint races, kind of happy with the number of races we have already, that’s only a personal preference but yeah, for the rest, I am not sure what he meant. I would love to speak to him before commenting.”
Max Verstappen: “No. I mean, you all know, of course, how I think about Sprint Races. But the length of the race, I think it’s fine. I mean, yeah, sometimes, what, one and a half hours, sometimes close to two. In other sports too, sometimes you can have exciting games, sometimes can be absolutely boring and you fall asleep. But that’s sports for you. You cannot always make it exciting, because if it’s always exciting, it becomes boring too, because then a lot of changes are happening, but that’s also not always how you want to see it. It always needs to be a surprise. Sometimes it can be surprisingly exciting, sometimes it can be surprisingly boring. So, yeah, from my side, I’m probably more of a traditional guy. I think it’s more important that all the teams are closer, because then you get more racing anyway. But in general, if you look at the season, if you take McLaren out of it, it is not too bad.
“It’s just that the following with these cars again is becoming a bit of a problem, so that’s why sometimes you are stuck again in the DRS train or whatever. Yes, I see the positives [of sprint races]. People are making more money. But for me personally, I mean, I’ve talked about it many times. You know my opinion about it, but I also understand why they do it, to also make it a more exciting product. On the day, because I can understand when fans come to the track, it’s of course more exciting to see cars race than just lap around and practice. For us, it’s still very important, of course, to have practice, but I understand from a fan’s point of view that it can be a bit boring. But F1 has been like this since the 50s, so I understand that sports evolve and stuff like that, but we shouldn’t go too crazy. I think a Sprint Race is already, from my side, crazy enough.”
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