“It’s Not Cool Anymore”: Guenther Steiner Lauds F1 for Replacing Free Practices With Sprint Races

Several drivers and team principals criticized F1 when they first introduced the sprint weekends. Some drivers such as Max Verstappen pointed out how sprint weekends at times take away the thrill of the Sunday races. Meanwhile, some of the engineers explained how during sprint weekends, they often do not have enough time to get the car in the right window.

Since sprint weekends have given rise to such issues, many have only reluctantly accepted it. However, former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner is not one of them.

While speaking on the Pitstop podcast, he said, “I love Sprint because there is something to watch on Fridays. How much does one love the practice sessions? Watching the cars go around, taking a lot of data, yeah, that’s cool“. He then further added,

“Time moves on. 20 years ago, just to see a race car going around, you were happy. But now, with so many things to watch, a race car not competing is just not cool anymore.”

 

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Steiner’s point seems valid as F2 follows a similar schedule to the F1 sprint weekends. F2 has just one practice session to set up the car before qualifying takes place and then the two races. Although Steiner may have a valid argument from the point of view of fans, so do the drivers who have complained about it in various instances.

Verstappen led drivers’ concerns about sprint race weekends

Verstappen criticized the ever-growing F1 calendar and how it makes life difficult for them. The Dutchman believes that sprint races take away the intrigue and suspense of the main race since the sprint race performance already suggests which team has the fastest car.

He said, “You’re like, if nothing happens if he doesn’t crash, they’re gonna win the race, that team or whatever. Like you watch qualifying, it might be that one car in front will drop back in the race, which is all unclear. And then you wake up, for the Sunday race, and then you all see them fold.”

He added, “So you know, more or less already ‘this guy’s going to be really good in the race, the other one is going to drop back’. So, it takes a little bit of the excitement away.”