Liberty Media has no plans to give up show that offer the Sprint races in Formula 1, after last season's experiment. Experiment also arrived in MotoGP in the wake of success in the premier category. In 2023 they will be 6 appointments with the mini race on Saturday and the first will be in Baku, the next round of the season, scheduled for the end of April, after the break. The current format is that of last year, with Friday occupied by Free Practice 1 and traditional Qualifying - valid for establishing the starting grid of the sprint; on Saturday with Free Practice 2 and Sprint Race – which determines the starting grid for Sunday. Liberty Media, as reported by various media, however, has proposed a change, to make the Sprint weekend even more desirable it's spectacular. The proposal was presented to the team principals on Friday morning in Melbourne and will have to be approved through a specific process.
Furthermore, this proposal comes after the "scandal" declarations of the number 1 of F1, Stefano Domenicali, on the remodulation or even abolition of free practice, in favor of a better show. But let's see in detail what are the novelties of these Sprints, and what is the procedure to follow in order for them to be approved.
The proposal: double qualification
Liberty Media's proposal would be as follows. Leave the task of establishing the starting grid on Sunday to Friday's qualifying, treating the Sprint as a real race in its own right, with ad hoc qualifying. Furthermore, the retracted weekend would no longer see two free practice sessions but only one, on Friday. On the other hand, the second free practice session in parc fermé, on Saturday, was rather useless. Qualifying to establish the starting grid for the Sprint would be held on Saturdaywith a revised format. In fact, each driver would only have one fastest lap available, and this is because the availability of tire sets over the weekend is limited. Either he does it, or he breaks it in short, hoping that it's not the car.
This is the proposal:
- Friday: Free Practice 1
- Friday: Traditional Qualifying – establishing Sunday's starting grid
- Saturday: Sprint Qualifying – which establishes the starting grid for the sprint race on Saturday
- Saturday: Sprint Race – gives points but does not establish positions
- Sunday: Grand Prix
What must happen for this new format to be approved?
At the moment this remains only a proposal that Liberty Media presented to the teams in the briefing held in Melbourne. In order for it to be approved – remember that we are talking about a modification of the sporting regulations – 28 votes in favor out of the thirty in the Formula 1 Commission are needed. Counting the votes of FIA and Liberty Media (twenty votes overall) at least the votes of 8 teams would be needed for final approval. Liberty Media's goal is to debut the new format already this season, in Baku, to avoid having two sprints with different formats during the season.
Source: Motorsport.com Italy
