F1 News: David Croft Provides Sprint Race Answer For Reserve Driver Inclusion

Popular commentator David Croft of Sky F1 has suggested further changes be made to the Sprint format that was introduced in 2021 as an experimental concept but went on to become a standalone race with its own qualifying for 2023 that are independent of the main race and the Grand Prix.

However, Croft suggests that the Sprint race could be a separate category altogether that has its own championship while the Grand Prix championship continues to be a separate event. For this evolution, he also suggested a suitable schedule where the drivers would go into a Sprint qualifying followed by the Sprint race on Friday.

Listen To The Latest Driven Mad Podcast Episode

Saturday could be spent on the practice session followed by qualifying and eventually ending it with the GP on Sunday. That way, the cars are not in parc ferme for the weekend. Speaking in detail on the Sky F1 podcast, he said:

“I think the sprint concept is good, I like it.

"But I don’t like it being part of the World Championship. I like two separate World Championships. Have your sprint day on a Friday, maybe, rather than a Saturday.

"You could go into Sprint Qualifying and then the Sprint with maybe a 20-minute warm-up in the morning. That’s your Friday.

"Then the cars are not in parc ferme for the rest of the weekend. Then you have your practice session on the Saturday morning, Saturday qualifying, race on Sunday. So you’re keeping the two very separate, for different world championships.”

In addition, Croft also gave a suggestion that would add more value to the role of reserve drivers. He said that the Sprint races shouldn't be made mandatory for the team's drivers. Instead, the reserve drivers could pitch in for the team and improve their chances of being recognized as potent drivers. He explained:

“If all the drivers don’t want to run in the Sprint World Championship, that’s fine.

"There are enough reserve drivers that do. Maybe that’s a good way of getting the reserve drivers involved in that. So commercially, that’s what I’d look at.”