Before the 2024 season began, F1 announced that the sprint weekends would be continuing for a fourth season. However, this year there would be tweaks in the scheduling on sprint race weekends.
2024 sprint format change
Last year, all sprint events were held on a Saturday. On Fridays, it was FP1 following by the grand prix race qualifying. On Saturdays, it was the sprint shootout qualifying followed by the sprint race. On Sundays, it was race day.
For 2024, the scheduling has been updated based on feedback from the teams and viewers. For this year, the sprint shootout qualifying will move from Saturday to Friday, following the FP1 session which remains on Friday. The sprint race will remain on Saturday but be moved to the first F1 session of the day. Then, the grand prix race qualifying will move from Friday to Saturday, to take place after the sprint race. On Sunday, unchanged, it will be the grand prix race.
Bernie Collins praises the new format
Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Bernie Collins – F1 strategy analyst for Sky Sports and F1TV and former F1 strategy engineer for Aston Martin – said that there are “a lot of positives” to the change, that it is a “good balance” now, and that this format seems the “most reasonable”.
For viewers, she explained that having the race qualifying back on a Saturday, rather than a Friday afternoon/evening, will mean that the majority of the working population of fans will be able to tune in to watch. She also addressed that the sprint shootout qualifying change:
“brings a competitive session to Friday”
Bernie Collins, Sky Sports F1 podcast
For teams, one of the difficulties of the previous sprint weekend formats is that they “didn’t want to have used all the qualifying tyres before qualifying.” For this year, in the sprint qualifying sessions the teams are required to use a medium tyre. This means that teams “should have enough” soft tyres left for race qualifying on Saturday.
Scheduling for the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix weekend
Written by Hannah.
Featured Image Credit: @play_coza on Twitter
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