F1 CEO Confirms Number Of 2024 Sprint Races
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has confirmed that there will still be just six sprint races in the 2024 season, as well as confirming when they will be announced.
The first sprint race weekend was introduced to the 2021 British Grand Prix. In 2021 and 2022 the season featured three sprint race weekends before increasing this to six for the current 2023 season. Domenicali has confirmed that despite the number of races increasing to 24 next year, the number of sprint races will remain the same at six.
Although we do not know exactly when these will be confirmed, Domenicali explained during an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, that the announcement will be made in September. He commented:
“There will be six 'sprints', I believe we will announce them in September because we still have a meeting of the Formula 1 Commission scheduled for the weekend of the Belgian Grand Prix.
"There is a proposal I would like to make, in line with the concept of the Grand Slam: a driver who should win the two poles and the two races over the weekend will have to be recognised for something more."
The current sprint race format, which has been tweaked for 2023, sees Free Practice One and Qualifying on Friday. The Saturday hosts the Sprint Shootout which is a smaller version of the qualifying format and determines the line-up for the Sprint Race which takes place later on the same day. The Sunday then features the main Grand Prix as usual, with the starting grid determined from the qualifying session on Friday.
As Domenicali has touched upon, he is looking to make some more changes to the 'Grand Slam' concept, giving a driver more if they achieve pole position in both Qualifying and the Sprint Shootout as well as winning both the Sprint Race and Grand Prix.