“Let’s Get Rid of the Sprint”: Ex-F1 World Champion Uses Sarcasm to Defend Sprint Races After Entertaining Round in Brazil

Jenson Button made an interesting tweet following the completion sprint race in Sao Paolo on Saturday. Max Verstappen claimed yet another victory in the outing, even though he started the race from P2, behind Lando Norris. Button thought that the race was fine. To defend it against online trolls, the 2009 world champion resorted to sarcasm.

He wrote, “Yeah, let’s get rid of the Sprint” on his personal X handle. However, the former World Champion was joking, as he stated in the comments under his posts.

Yeah let’s get rid of the Sprint!

— Jenson Button (@JensonButton) November 4, 2023

F1 introduced the sprint format in 2021 to make race weekends spicier and more interesting. However, it has failed to stand out, and with each passing race weekend, fans start questioning its existence even more. Regardless, Button was a fan of how things unfolded on Saturday.

Button, showed a brilliant way to tackle things as he wrote, “Oh you thought I was serious! I loved the Sprint today.” Admittedly, the Sprint race in Sao Paulo has been incredible from the fans’ perspective, even though Verstappen showed ample disinterest with constant changes made by the F1.

Max Verstappen frustrated with the FIA for changes to Sprint Races

Max Verstappen has recently responded with fury when he was asked about a possible sprint format change next year onwards. Since the Sprint races were getting ample criticism, the F1 management decided to revamp it to bring more excitement.

Therefore, Verstappen was asked to reveal his thoughts on the possible changes. Replying to this, the three-time world champion said that he is hardly interested in making any changes. Instead, he wants all the race weekends to feature a normal format.

Max Verstappen WIIIIINS the final Sprint of 2023!

Once he passed Lando Norris at Turn 1, he never looked back! Norris comes home second, with Perez third#BrazilGP #F1Sprint pic.twitter.com/K939b9a5vf

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 4, 2023

However, Christian Horner and Lewis Hamilton were in favor of making significant changes to the format instead of scrapping the idea. Both people feel that having a reverse grid is good for the sport, since it will add a lot more challenge for the stronger teams on the grid.

Presumably, Hamilton made those comments because he enjoyed starting from P20 and winning the 2021 Sao Paolo GP. All in all, F1 is trying hard to bring enough excitement to the sprint races.