“Everybody’s confused”– Toto Wolff on implementation of sprint races by Formula 1

“Everybody’s confused”– Toto Wolff talks about Formula 1 perplexing the teams with the new reforms, including the sprint races.

Formula 1 intended to add sprint races into the Grand Prix weekends to add more excitement into the schedule spanning across all three days, but so far, the teams are not entirely impressed with it.

Toto Wolff claims that the format is keeping them confused and remarks that current sprint races as a concept don’t add anything to the whole setup.

“First of all, everybody’s confused,” Wolff toldRacingNews365.com. “I don’t know how it is with you, I don’t even know what session is when. I believe the sprint race format as it stands at the moment, doesn’t give a lot of benefit because nobody will take a serious risk.”

“There’s too little points at stake and the risk of compromising your Sunday Grand Prix, with points all the way back to 10th position, is just not worth the risk.”

“So, what we’ve seen is a combination of general difficulties in overtaking because the straight-line speeds are very similar, but also because, even Turn 1 and 2, nobody takes a risk.”

“I think let’s give it another try in Brazil, let’s see if there’s anything that changes. But that was a worthwhile experiment and for me, and this is just a personal opinion or the opinion of my engineers here, it’s not fish, not meat.”

Neither reverse grid is a solution

Initially, the reverse grid was formalised as the solution, but with the big teams like Mercedes opposing, the sprint races were the ‘compromise’, but Wolff doesn’t believe in the reverse grid either.

Hamilton, Bottas, Verstappen, Perez, Ocon, Kubica, Giovinazzi, Alonso, Gasly, Norris your top ten in FP2.

Massive differences in fuel loads – Sprint levels or GP levels – which I quite like. Keeps a few more unknowns heading into the two races #F1 #ItalianGP

— Chris Medland (@ChrisMedlandF1) September 11, 2021

“It’s [reverse grid races] diluting the DNA of the sport as a meritocracy,” said Wolff. “I think the sprint races were worth a try, I’m not sure we will keep them but reverse grid [races] can be done in junior formulas, where you want to see the overtaking abilities of the drivers.”

“It’s not something which should even come close to Formula 1.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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