resulted in a clash<\/a> with Nico Hulkenberg and team-mate and title rival Lando Norris (incident pictured above). <\/p>\nAfter that, Piastri said a grand total of 45 words about a moment that could be pivotal in the drivers\u2019 championship battle.<\/p>\n
It would be one thing if Piastri were only willing to say 45 words, that\u2019s his prerogative. But usually there\u2019s a single question from FOM for everyone outside the top three at the end of a sprint.<\/p>\n
And by the time there’s wider access to drivers at the end of the day, the events of grand prix qualifying are foremost in both their minds and the audience’s, so revisiting sprint topics is rarely worthwhile – as will be the case again when the format is used this weekend in Brazil and again later this month in Qatar.<\/p>\n
Yes, many drivers have little more to say than words to the effect of \u2018I started 12th, drove around in 12th and nothing happened\u2019 after a sprint but when a significant tale erupts it needs to be told, and in a relatively short period of time before the main event gets going.<\/p>\n
You might argue that this is just a complaint about the written media not getting their pound of flesh. It would be helpful to be able to speak to the drivers after sprints but it\u2019s understandable that they want to avoid the post-race media pen being too time-consuming with qualifying proper to come. It would be a good start just to have more broadcasters able to ask questions rather than relying on the FOM question.<\/p>\n
What happens on track is a big part of the story, what\u2019s said off it is also an important element of it and this source of information, insight and comment from the people actually at the centre of the action is wiped out.<\/p>\n
Sprints are fundamentally forgettable, but if F1 wants them to become a genuinely integral part of the weekend then there must at least be the chance to get a bit more out of the names in question.<\/p>\n
Whether that\u2019s achieved by expanding the pen (even if just for the broadcasters), or perhaps by selecting several key and storied drivers to appear in a second press conference outside the top three is up for debate, but something needs to be done better.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not about expecting the drivers to give hours of their time to explain everything, but it is part of what F1 supposedly considers an entertainment offering.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, it is actually in the interest of the drivers to get their point across sometimes, meaning a little more time spent after the race if required shouldn\u2019t be too much to ask. After all, it\u2019s their way of speaking to the fans.<\/p>\n
This all feeds into the impression the sprints are disposable, forgettable and perfunctory. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s plenty that can be done to give sprints their own distinct feel and relevance to the F1 world championship, but they have always been an almost-apologetic bolt-on. Even within the existing format limitations, there are simple ways to enhance them and at least give the impression that those participating believe they matter and that, as a consequence, those watching at home should too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 has grand ambitions for sprint events, albeit ones that have yet to be realised primarily thanks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-262793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}