{"id":158228,"date":"2025-09-21T06:18:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T06:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/158228\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T06:18:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T06:18:06","slug":"unwanted-f1-sprint-side-effect-highlighted-as-big-weekend-change-mooted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/158228\/","title":{"rendered":"Unwanted F1 Sprint side-effect highlighted as big weekend change mooted"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since Formula 1 first introduced the concept of the sprint race back in 2021, ample debate has arisen about exactly how many sprint events should take place in a season, as the sport has gone from three sprints to six in a season. Now, F1 is considering as many as 12 sprints.<\/p>\n

During the Azerbaijan Grand Prix<\/a> weekend, several drivers raised their concerns about the proposed number of sprints. Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a> did, too, by pointing out that Formula 1 teams may have significant reservations about hiring rookies in future seasons where Free Practice time is at a minimum.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Bortoleto: F1 sprint increase could lead to fewer rookies<\/p>\n

While the F1 2025 season boasts an impressive number of rookies making their full-time Formula 1 debuts, Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto has warned that rookies could become a rarity in the sport should sprint races become a more common feature.<\/p>\n

Back in 2021, Formula 1 first introduced the concept of a \u2018sprint\u2019, in which drivers would qualify for and then compete in a short race during the build-up to Sunday\u2019s grand prix. Those two additional on-track sessions thereby meant that two Free Practice sessions needed to be scrapped.<\/p>\n

What began with three sprints per season was expanded to six come 2023. Now, as Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali toys with ways to pack ever more action into a grand prix weekend, rumors have emerged suggesting that there could be as many as 12 sprints on the F1 calendar in the near future \u2014 which means that half of the grands prix in a season would feature a sprint.<\/p>\n

Dig deeper into F1 ahead of the Azerbaijan GP:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Eleven moments of Azerbaijan GP chaos as F1 returns to Baku<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0What\u2019s really behind F1\u2019s push for more Sprint races?<\/a><\/p>\n

Naturally, the current Formula 1 field was asked about their perspective on an increase in sprints, and many drivers expressed reservations about such a significant change in the format.<\/p>\n

Sauber\u2019s Bortoleto did admit that he \u201cdidn\u2019t stop to think about\u201d what a greater number of sprints would signify, but that he enjoys the sport\u2019s current format, which includes \u201d FP 1, 2 and 3 to develop, to test things in the car and to fine-tune things.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I find fascinating about Formula 1, is how you can go into details and fine-tune things.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s in direct contrast to a sprint weekend, where two free practice sessions are replaced by a qualifying and race session.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a sprint weekend, it\u2019s always, you know, short time and you need to do things quickly, and sometimes you don\u2019t maximize things in time,\u201d Bortoleto explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it\u2019s, it\u2019s nice for the entertainment of the fans and the weekend, that you have more racing and more important sessions in this sense, but I\u2019m not so sure I would go more than 12 at some point.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I think that\u2019s already a hard limit.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was posed to Bortoleto that an increase in sprints could mean notoriously challenging events like Singapore could feature a sprint. Asked if that would be a challenge for the rookies, he replied, \u201cOh, then they have a problem!<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a rookie next year, but definitely a problem! You go to Singapore, daytime \u2014 not ideal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve been lucky to get Formula 1 in this moment, that there\u2019s some sprints but not a lot of them yet. But for the future rookies, I think having sprints, only one FP, it\u2019s not gonna be easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Formula 1 regulations currently mandate that teach team must run rookie drivers in Free Practice 1 at four events per season \u2014 two outings for rookies per car. An increase in sprint events would necessarily result in fewer opportunities for rookies to get behind the wheel, presenting a challenge to teams.<\/p>\n

For Bortoleto, that\u2019s not a major concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult, but it\u2019s something mandatory, right?\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to do it, and it\u2019s the same for everyone. So everyone will have the same problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

For him, there\u2019s an even more major issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem, I would say, will be teams probably think a bit more before hiring rookies, because they know they have less time to adapt with sprint events,\u201d Bortoleto said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I think is going to be more of a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Brazilian driver\u2019s reasoning is sound; teams won\u2019t be snapping at the opportunity to hire untried talent if that talent will only have a single practice session to come to terms with the challenging nature of a Formula 1 car and to learn the sport\u2019s challenging race circuits.<\/p>\n

Even 2025 proved a challenge for the major rookie field, with the season kicking off at a wet Australian Grand Prix before immediately launching into the first sprint of the year at the following event. With more sprints in the future, rookies will indeed have some major hurdles in front of them.<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Ranked: Five of the most infamous team orders calls in F1 history<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since Formula 1 first introduced the concept of the sprint race back in 2021, ample debate has arisen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,54428,817,813,816,7695,818,7982,44,17165,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-158228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-azerbaijan-grand-prix","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-gabriel-bortoleto","15":"tag-home-page","16":"tag-kick-sauber","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-popular","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}