Tag: F1 Sprint

Two F1 Sprints for U.S. in 2025, amid one change

There will be two Formula 1 Sprint race weekends held in the United States again in 2025, as Belgium takes over from Austria as the only change on the schedule compared to this season. Miami held a Sprint for the first time in 2024 and retains that …

There will be two Formula 1 Sprint race weekends held in the United States again in 2025, as Belgium takes over from Austria as the only change on the schedule compared to this season.

Miami held a Sprint for the first time in 2024 and retains that format for next year, following on from China that will host the opening sprint of the season. Austria hosted one this year but will gave way to Spa-Francorchamps in 2025, with the Belgian Grand Prix also having previously hosted Sprint events.

The total number of Sprint weekends remains at six, with the U.S. GP in Austin, Sao Paulo GP at Interlagos and Qatar GP in Losail ensuring another busy end to the season with three of the final six rounds featuring the format.

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The format itself remains unchanged compared to the current schedule that features Sprint qualifying on a Friday in place of FP2, the Sprint first on a Saturday before main qualifying in its usual slot that same afternoon and the grand prix on Sunday.

Formula 1 has noted significant television and social media uplift from the additional competitive sessions compared to Friday practice, with live audience figures for Sprint qualifying and the Sprint itself in China up “40% across the top 15 markets compared to the average practice sessions for the opening two races,” and Miami’s Sprint pulling in 946,000 viewers on ESPN.

“The Sprint has been a great success for Formula 1, bringing all our fans more action and racing on the track,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said. “We are seeing the proof of this in our audience data, fan attendance on Fridays and from the promoters and partners.

“As we prepare to celebrate our 75th anniversary in 2025 we will always honor our incredible history, but we must always be looking ahead, innovating, and improving to deliver the best for our growing and diverse fanbase.

“The Sprint is a great example of bringing new elements to our sport in a way that is respectful of the championship, and I want to thank the six venues that will host the Sprint in 2025 and look forward to those incredible events throughout the season.”

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem also says the current Sprint format is an example of how the governing body and F1 have worked together to make adjustments based on fan and stakeholder feedback.

“As the FIA Formula 1 World Championship celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2025, the Sprint will also enter its fifth year as part of the competition,” Ben Sulayem said. “Over that time, and through our strong collaboration with Formula 1 and with the input of all the teams, it has been through several different iterations and the regulations and format have evolved to give us the exciting and popular Sprints we have today.

“The six events for 2025 once again take in an interesting range of circuits and are sure to provide fans with plenty of additional action across the season.”

Verstappen eager to test Red Bull pace vs McLaren in sprint

Max Verstappen says the sprint at the Austrian Grand Prix will give a telling indication of the relative pace differences between Red Bull and McLaren this weekend. McLaren has consistently been a threat to Red Bull since introducing an upgrade in …

Max Verstappen says the sprint at the Austrian Grand Prix will give a telling indication of the relative pace differences between Red Bull and McLaren this weekend.

McLaren has consistently been a threat to Red Bull since introducing an upgrade in Miami, with Lando Norris winning in Florida and then finishing second to Verstappen in Imola, Canada and Spain. After taking pole position for Saturday’s sprint by under 0.1s from Norris once again, Verstappen says the trend appears to be continuing but he’s keen to learn more in the shorter race.

“We started off the day well, the car was already in a good window — a little niggle with the sensor but we fixed that quickly — and then heading into qualifying I think the car was pretty strong. I could push,” Verstappen said. “Of course there are always areas where we can do better, so we’ll look at that tonight, but definitely a good start to the weekend.

“At the end of the day, when really everyone is pushing flat out [McLaren] are again behind me, so for sure they are quick as well. We seem quick in the high speed, which is nice around here, hopefully we can keep that going also tomorrow, but of course the sprint race will give us an early indication of how the pace will be in the race for every car so I’m looking forward to that.”

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Norris had a similar outlook to Verstappen having looked most competitive in the final part of sprint qualifying compared to the earlier phases, and he says he’s confident he can take the fight to the Red Bull driver over the 24 laps.

“I think reasonably good, to be honest — I never got quite comfortable until probably my final lap,” Norris said. “So I’m happy with that. Close, as it has been the whole year, so no difference, but it must have been a nice lap by Max and a good position for the race tomorrow.”

Oscar Piastri will start from third as both McLarens secured strong grid positions, and the Australian says it was a relief to bounce back from a challenging weekend in Barcelona.

“The position is quite good obviously but the last lap, there were a couple of corners I could tidy up,” Piastri said. “It’s nice to at least know where the time is — obviously a bit of a rough one last weekend, so I feel like we’re back on the pace. The new front wing was working well, so excited for the rest of the weekend now.

“The gap to Max is not massive and I know there were a couple of big mistakes on that lap, so we’re definitely in the mix.”

Leclerc perplexed by SQ3 issue that prevented attempt

Charles Leclerc says he doesn’t know what caused his car to shut down in the pit lane and prevented him from setting a lap time in SQ3 at the Austrian Grand Prix. The final part of sprint qualifying saw all 10 drivers waiting until the final few …

Charles Leclerc says he doesn’t know what caused his car to shut down in the pit lane and prevented him from setting a lap time in SQ3 at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The final part of sprint qualifying saw all 10 drivers waiting until the final few minutes to start the one attempt, both to save a set of tires but also due to the lack of time to go out and complete two runs in most of the shortened sessions. Leclerc had left the Ferrari garage but then came to a halt in the pit lane before moving once again, but he just ran out of time to start a timed lap before the checkered flag came out.

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“I don’t know what happened,” Leclerc said. “I was in the pit lane and I got the anti-stall and then everything switched off.

“We weren’t super strong, but definitely better than P10 [was possible] so it’s a bit disappointing. But we’ll look at what happened and tomorrow we’ll try to have a good sprint race to come back to the front.”

Teammate Carlos Sainz secured fifth place on the grid for Saturday’s sprint, but says there is work to do ahead of the main qualifying session too.

“I had a decent sprint qualifying, I think I was on it since Q1, Q2 and Q3,” Sainz said. “Three very clean laps in qualifying. Unfortunately, already in FP1 on softs we look a bit weaker than on the harder compounds, and then when we put that soft on at the end, from maybe thinking top three was possible, we are P5.

“But we had the same in FP1 where we were P6 or something like that on softs, so something to look into. Unfortunately, right now this is more or less where we are.

“I’m hoping that we can move forward a little. Starting P5, clean side of the grid, we’re going to go for it and try to get as maximum points as possible tomorrow. And then we have another qualifying where we still need to do some fine-tuning on the car.”

Verstappen wins penalty-laden Miami GP Sprint

Max Verstappen took victory from pole position ahead of front-row starter Charles Leclerc, in an incident- and penalty-filled Sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix. Verstappen was super aggressive off the line, squeezing Leclerc to the inside of the …

Max Verstappen took victory from pole position ahead of front-row starter Charles Leclerc, in an incident- and penalty-filled Sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix.

Verstappen was super aggressive off the line, squeezing Leclerc to the inside of the track to compromise his rival at the first corner and guarantee himself the lead. The Ferrari driver gamely clung to Verstappen’s gearbox through the first two sectors, but a safety car was called before the end of the first lap, neutralizing the race to collect Lando Norris’s stopped McLaren at the first turn.

Norris was the innocent party in a multicar collision at the first apex. Lewis Hamilton steamed into a gap on the inside of Fernando Alonso, who was already in the process of crashing into the side of teammate Lance Stroll. Hamilton’s added momentum sent all three cars into the side of Norris, who was spun off the road and to a race-ending stop.

Both Aston Martin drivers had to pit for repairs. Alonso was able to rejoin the race, but Stroll was forced to retire with damage. Hamilton continued behind the safety car.

The stewards opted against investigating the crash.

The race resumed on lap 4, but Verstappen was unable to clear away from Leclerc.

“Zero rear grip, like quali,” he complained to his race engineer.

But though his problems kept Leclerc within range, they weren’t severe enough to bring him within range of victory, and the Dutchman took the flag first with a 3.3s margin.

“We could increase the gap a little bit, but it wasn’t entirely perfect, so we still have a little bit of work to do,” he said. “Hopefully we can improve it a little bit later on for qualifying.”

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Leclerc was fortunate to be in the contest at all after Alpine’s Esteban Ocon crashed into him in the pit lane on the way to the grid. The Frenchman bizarrely plowed into the side of the Monegasque, his front wing breaking underneath the Ferrari’s right-rear tire despite his mechanics appearing to be telling him to stop.

“The guy was completely sleeping,” Leclerc said, though fortunately he escaped with only minor right-rear wheel rim damage that left him uninhibited on his way to a second place he said boded well for his grand prix prospects.

“I didn’t want to take too many risks because we have qualifying later on,” he said. “I was pushing very hard but in the first few laps they had a bit more pace, but then we had similar degradation. Hopefully we can put them under pressure on strategy [tomorrow].”

Sergio Perez finished third but without the pace to catch Leclerc after falling behind Daniel Ricciardo at the start. It took the Mexican just one lap after the safety car to take the position back, but his early pace was unimpressive. He chose instead to gift Ricciardo DRS until lap 9 to help keep a buffer to Carlos Sainz behind, after which he cleared off to secure third, though it left him too far behind the leaders to move forward.

“It was really hard to get through Daniel at the beginning, and once I go through … I was 3s from Charles, and given the short duration of the race, it was pretty tricky. Anyway, let’s look forward to the rest of the weekend.”

Ricciardo’s RB led Red Bull’s A-team car of Perez early before taking fourth. Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images

Ricciardo was an excellent fourth for RB to score his first points of the year. The Australian seemed unlikely to hold position without Perez’s DRS, but he was inch perfect with his defensive lines and clever with his battery deployment to keep Sainz’s much faster Ferrari — and Oscar Piastri behind in sixth — at bay to score his first points of the season.

Nico Hulkenberg finished a strong seventh for Haas after teammate Kevin Magnussen did a sterling but controversial job of defending against Lewis Hamilton throughout the race.

The Dane picked up a ludicrous three penalties worth 25s in total — variously for cutting the chicane, crowding Hamilton off the track and driving off the road — to hold up the Mercedes driver so long that he never stood a chance of catching Hulkenberg.

“All the penalties were well deserved, no doubt about it, but I had to play the game,” Magnussen admitted to British TV, though he was disappointed Hulkenberg didn’t drop back to help him out with DRS.

His off-track duel with Hamilton even allowed Yuki Tsunoda to slot ahead of the Briton late in the race, but in the end the battle was in vain. Magnussen’s heavy penalties dropped him last, and Hamilton was slugged 20s for speeding in pit lane that dumped him to 16th. Tsunoda therefore inherited the final point of the race in eighth.

Pierre Gasly led home Logan Sargeant, Zhou Guanyu, the surprisingly slow Mercedes of George Russell and the pit-lane starting Alex Albon and Valtteri Bottas home.

Ocon finished 15th after serving his 10s penalty during the safety car period but finished ahead of only Hamilton, the damaged Alonso and Magnussen.

Drivers warn of strain on mechanics with too many Sprints

Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, and Sergio Perez have all warned against adding too many Sprint races to the Formula 1 calendar due to the strain they place on mechanics. Last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix was the first of six Sprint events this …

Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, and Sergio Perez have all warned against adding too many Sprint races to the Formula 1 calendar due to the strain they place on mechanics.

Last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix was the first of six Sprint events this season, with the next round in Miami also a Sprint for the first time. Verstappen says the new schedule – where Sprint qualifying and the Sprint take place across Friday evening and Saturday morning prior to main qualifying – is an improvement but still taxing for team members.

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“The Sprint format was better I think, a bit more straightforward, I would say,” Verstappen said. “But yeah, let’s not overdo it as well because we are already doing 24 races a year, six of these Sprint events as well.

“I get it. I guess it sells better and better numbers on TV, but it’s also more stress on the mechanics and everything, to get everything tiptop every time. You have to deal with it, but let’s not think that now we need 12 of those because it will take its toll on people as well.”

Norris agreed with Verstappen’s comments, saying the schedule for drivers is far less challenging than for others working in F1.

“To be honest, I’d always prefer the old, original race format,” Norris said. “This is what I’ve grown up watching, it’s what I’ve always liked the most. I do like just going in and having the pressure straightaway. So the fact of having one practice straight into qualifying, I do like it.

“I think it gives people less chance to just get the car perfect and I think that’s when you just start to see team, team, team, team rather than a mix. So I do think it works from that perspective.

“But the main point is just the toll it has on mechanics and engineers. I don’t think it’s too bad for us as drivers, honestly. I don’t think we can be the ones to complain at all. It’s the hundreds of mechanics and engineers that we have here that have to travel so much. It’s not healthy for them. It is not sustainable.

“The problem is not with us. So, it’s not something you should be asking us. It’s something that people should look out more for the rest of the team. And I think that’s a limiting factor, not the fact of can we go in the car every day, because I think we can but not doing too much for them I think is the priority.”

And Perez believes F1 is at a breaking point when it comes to how much it is asking team members to deal with amid 24 race weekends across 21 different countries this season.

“I think it’s a good point from Lando and Max, we really have to look after (team members),” Perez said. “With 24 races and the amount of stress these Sprint events put on our mechanics is quite large. And I think as a sport we really have to look after our people, our mechanics. Because yeah, we are definitely on the limit. I think that’s a point to consider.”

F1 Commission agrees changes needed for sprint format

A meeting of the Formula 1 Commission has seen support for further changes to the sprint format to separate it from the rest of a grand prix weekend. The current schedule sees qualifying for the main race take place on Friday night after one FP1 …

A meeting of the Formula 1 Commission has seen support for further changes to the sprint format to separate it from the rest of a grand prix weekend.

The current schedule sees qualifying for the main race take place on Friday night after one FP1 session, and then the sprint shootout and sprint on Saturday before the grand prix on Sunday. Drivers and teams feel that schedule locks them into parc ferme regulations too soon, and it has been agreed that the format needs revising.

While no firm changes were outlined, discussions are set to take place in January over potential ideas such as moving the sprint shootout to Friday evening and the sprint then taking place before the main qualifying session on a Saturday, although a reverse grid for the sprint could also be looked into following support from a number of drivers.

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The F1 Commission meeting also resulted in a ban on tire blankets — already pushed back by one year — scrapped for 2025, while the current tire allocations of 13 dry sets per weekend will also remain in place. Teams also agreed that they are not going to be allowed to do any development work on a car for the 2026 season before the start of 2025.

The technical regulations are going to be updated to permit teams to run a scoop to increase driver cooling, in response to the conditions seen in the Qatar Grand Prix earlier this year.

Further updates regarding the development of a wet weather package were also provided, with a wheel cover to reduce spray set to be tested in early 2024. The test “will use a cover design that completely envelopes the tire, in order to establish a proof of concept for the wheel cover with these cars and help define the future direction of the project.”

Norris tops Sprint Shootout after bizarre Ocon and Alonso clash

Lando Norris set the fastest time of the Sprint Shootout to recover from a frustrating qualifying at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, in a session held up by a collision between Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso. There was no rain to disrupt proceedings but …

Lando Norris set the fastest time of the Sprint Shootout to recover from a frustrating qualifying at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, in a session held up by a collision between Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso.

There was no rain to disrupt proceedings but the session was still delayed after the bizarre crash, when the Alpine was starting a flying lap and Alonso had backed off so was on the outside of Turn 3 letting cars through. While Alonso appeared to tighten his line just as Ocon was set to pass, the Frenchman had a snap of oversteer that pushed him wide and he hit his former teammate, sending Ocon flying into the barrier on the outside of the track at high speed.

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The crash red flagged SQ1 and ended it prematurely, leading to Ocon being eliminated alongside Lance Stroll, Zhou Guanyu, Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant. The incident also meant the clean-up operation and barrier checks delayed the start of SQ2, with Aston Martin unable to repair Alonso’s car in time to take part.

The second session started just four minutes before the whole qualifying session should have ended, but it was worth the wait for the likes of Norris and Ricciardo, who impressed with the fastest and fourth-fastest times respectively. Norris achieved his on used mediums in another sign of the raw pace McLaren failed to capitalize on on Friday, while Ricciardo managed his time with just one run.

Those improvements nudged the Haas pair of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg down to 11th and 12th ahead of Pierre Gasly and Valtteri Bottas, with just 0.196s covering the Finn – who set the slowest time with Alonso not running – and Tsunoda who was 10th in SQ2.

A major factor of the final part of qualifying was the availability of tires, although those with multiple sets of new softs still only opted for a single run. That led to a busy final few minutes of SQ3, with Norris and Max Verstappen – both on new softs – closely matched throughout before Norris snatched pole by 0.061s.

“Honestly, it felt like one of the worst laps I’ve done, so I’m a bit surprised,” the McLaren driver said, but lines up ahead of both Red Bulls with Sergio Perez in third.

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton are fourth and fifth ahead of a very impressive performance from Yuki Tsunoda, who beat Ricciardo – who ended up eighth – by just over 0.1s, sandwiching Charles Leclerc, with Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri rounding out the top 10.

Checo Pérez se equivoca y saldrá último en GP de Gran Bretaña

Checo Pérez cometió un error en el F1 Sprint, su auto hizo un trompo, se salió de la pista y sufrió daños, por lo que saldrá último en Silverstone

El mexicano Sergio Pérez tuvo un desastroso día en Silverstone, pues en el F1 Sprint, el experimento de la Fórmula 1 para clasificar a los pilotos a la parrilla de salida, el mexicano hizo un trompo que lo sacó de la pista y lo mandó a la última posición.

Checo Pérez largó en la quinta posición, pero, con la especialidad de la casa, Fernando Alonso rebasó a muchos en la largada y el mexicano terminó en la séptima posición tras la primera vuelta.

En la quinta vuelta de las 17 pactadas, Checo Pérez quiso llevar al máximo su Red Bull para acercarse a Alonso y en una curva la parte trasera de su auto tocó la pintura blanca y realizó un gran trompo que lo sacó de la pista pero pudo controlar para no impactarse contra la pared.

El trompo de Checo aparece en el 1:50 del video.

Finalmente el monoplaza del mexicano sí sufrió daños y una vuelta antes de que concluyera la prueba pidieron retirar el vehículo por posibles daños mecánicos y de tal forma saldrá en la P20 en el GP de Gran Bretaña este domingo.

Pero no todo fue malo para Red Bull, pues Max Verstappen se hizo de la pole position arrebatándole a Lewis Hamilton el puesto que el británico ya había conseguido para el F1 Sprint.

Foto portada ESPECIAL

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