Sprint races were introduced to F1 in 2021 to bring more excitement to the sport. However, recently, drivers, fans, and team principals have started to publicly take a stand against Sprint races. Now, Red Bull, Mercedes, and Co have arrived to offer alternatives to the sprint race format, as per Autosport.
The newly introduced Sprint races faced immense criticism as they offered nothing exclusive. It was almost similar to the main race, just for significantly fewer points. Therefore, there were talks about revamping the entire format of the sprint race.
Hence, the bosses of the teams and drivers are ready to think about a replacement. In doing so, they revealed the idea of having a million-dollar competition within the season.
Mercedes and Red Bull bosses talked about an alternate Sprint format
As the sprint format has not had the best response since its introduction, the F1 bosses and drivers decided to pitch an alternative. They talked about having a new format with $1 million as the prize money to suit the sport and increase the excitement.
Talking about this, Red Bull boss Christian Horner said as per Autosport, “I think you have got to add a bit more jeopardy to it. Whether you do a reverse the top 10 or something, you’ve got to add enough points to it to make it worth the drivers to really go for it.”
On the other hand, Mercedes honcho Toto Wolff added, “I’m conservative in racing. “I’d rather have no sprint races than if you start to meddle. Even more with reverse grid races, we are going towards junior formulae where sport follows entertainment, while entertainment should follow sport.”
What else does F1 have to offer other than $1 million as the winner’s trophy?
As the talks are on about having a new format for the sprint race format in the upcoming seasons, there are also reports about having a new format in the sprint races apart from the one million dollars as the prize.
The F1 experts also talked about having a reversed grid format that would see the top ten teams start from the back of the grid. Along with this, the Formula 1 Management and the FIA are in discussion to have a new format to make the sprint races more interesting.
Since the FIA are not ready to part ways with the sprint races, there are chances that the sport decides on something that is not identical to just the main race and main qualification. Therefore, it will be interesting to see if they can pull off such a move to make sport more interesting.
