F1 News: Formula One Bosses Consider Huge Sprint Race Format Change After Austin Issues

Formula 1 team bosses are prepared to consider a major overhaul of the Sprint race format amid common concerns among many that the current format has been unsuccessful in creating enough thrill and excitement.

Fans showed a lack of interest in the 'boring' United States Grand Prix Sprint race as ticket sales suggested a clear drop in demand. What one can grasp is that the Sprint race hasn't been adding to the F1 weekends but, is rather taking away some of the 'magic' as Max Verstappen described it.

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While nothing has been proposed on paper yet, changes to the Sprint format could be seen as early as 2024. A report from Autosport explains that team bosses have begun informal discussions about the changes that could be implemented to spice up the Sprint race.

The report also adds that F1 won't mind adopting an aggressive approach in transforming the Sprint format, rather than just making minor changes. As a result, several radical ideas are being circulated in the paddock for consideration.

One of them is converting the Saturday Sprint into a standalone F1 Sprint championship which means that points earned in the Sprint race aren't included in the Grand Prix points. Consequently, the Sprint will be treated as a separate championship.

To get the drivers to take the Sprint Championship seriously, the sport could get a special sponsor for the format to offer a huge sum of money as a cash prize for the winner, which could go as high as $1 million.

A more radical idea includes a reverse grid format where the top ten cars are shuffled from the back to the front. Or, even the entire grid order is shuffled back to front to make it more exciting. The grid position for the same could be based on a reverse championship order or, on a qualifying format that would continue to push drivers to achieve their best lap time.

Suggesting that the current Sprint format is not good enough, the Red Bull team boss revealed in Austin:

"I think you have got to add a bit more jeopardy to it.

Whether you do a reverse the top 10 or something, you've got to add enough points to it to make it worth the drivers to really go for it."

However, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said he wasn't a fan of the reverse grid format. He added:

"I'm conservative in racing.

I'd rather have no sprint races than if you start to meddle. Even more with reverse grid races, we are going towards junior formulae where sport follows entertainment, while entertainment should follow sport.

Creating artificial gaming around the sprint race on a Saturday is not the way that I would favour personally. But that's my opinion.

All teams, together with Stefano [Domenicali, F1 CEO], we just need to think about what is best."