Max Verstappen has once again criticized the Sprint format in F1 ahead of the 2023 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Brazil will witness the last Sprint of the season, but while some are excited about what is to come, Verstappen isn’t particularly happy. Regardless, the three-time world champion insists that he will be at the top of his game.
Talking about this in the Sao Paulo GP press conference, the Dutch driver said, “The Sprint format makes it quite difficult to straightaway be on top of things. We had a few ideas why last year was not that great but yeah one practice session to make sure that it’s better this year. I guess we’ll find out.”
Notably, Verstappen‘s response at the press conference was sarcastic. This is because the Red Bull star believes that the old format helps the teams prepare better for races.
On the sprint race weekends, engineers find it difficult to tune their cars, because there is just one practice session. Instead of FP2 and FP3, the Sprint shootout and sprint race takes place. This something that Max Verstappen is not a fan of.
Max Verstappen and new F1 sprint format
Max Verstappen started the press conference with a joke when he asked the host to keep the session a bit shorter. Following this, he was asked if he would win the Sao Paulo GP this time around. Answering this, the Red Bull driver shared a mixed answer.
This is because the RB-19 is not very strong around this circuit due to the presence of low-speed corners. Furthermore, the presence of only one practice session makes it more tricky as all the teams suffer from it.
Therefore, the Formula 1 management is in thought to be revamping the sprint race weekend to bring more excitement. In fact, there are talks about having a reverse grid setup for the sprint.
Drivers like Lewis Hamilton, and Carlos Sainz all are open to experimenting with the new Sprint format since the old format is too revealing. Having seen the sprint race, one can have an idea of the race pace of different cars, ahead of Sunday, which is not a good show for the sport as a whole.
