On September 16, F1 unveiled its 2027 calendar with 24 races scheduled across five continents. Headlines from the announcement included confirmation of a return to venues like Portimao in Portugal and Istanbul in Turkey.
While the number of races has hovered around 22 to 24 in recent years, the highlight for 2027 is the increase in Sprint races from six to 10. Sprints are shortened dashes of 100 kilometres, held on Saturdays ahead of the main Grand Prix on the Sunday.
Ever since the Drive to Survive series first aired on Netflix in 2019, F1’s popularity has skyrocketed, making its races some of the best-attended sporting events in the world.
To cash in on the surge, and help race promoters get more bang for the buck, Sprints were introduced in 2021 to ensure that all three days of the weekend had context-heavy sessions that could affect the outcome of the Championship.
In the pre-Sprint era, the F1 race schedule had largely followed a similar format for decades – a few practice sessions on Friday, followed by another one on Saturday ahead of qualifying, and the all-important battle on Sunday.
It meant that most of the Friday running was for teams and drivers to fine-tune their cars and arrive at the ideal set-up. Often, teams didn’t even run in the first half hour of Friday’s first practice because the track was ‘dirty’.
The transformation
Sprints, by also offering Championship points, changed the equation. In the first two years of their existence, there was a seamless transition from one session to the next.
A single free practice on Friday was followed by a Sprint pole shootout (in the standard qualifying format) to set the grid for Saturday’s Sprint Qualifying (the 100km race). Saturday’s outcome set the grid for Sunday’s marquee contest, with the winner earning pole position.
However, it came with its own issues. Drivers were overly cautious in the Sprints to avoid damage that could hurt them in the main race. It also messed up some historical records, including what counted as a pole position.
High or low?: Max Verstappen won his third successive F1 title at the 2023 Qatar GP Sprint. But is it proper to crown a World champion outside of the main race?
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In 2021, the winner of the Sprint Qualifying was given the pole stat. But with many, including the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, believing that pole position should reflect single-lap prowess and not that of a mini-race, it was changed in 2022 to reward the fastest man in Friday’s shootout.
But that led to another paradox – the quickest on Friday would get the pole stat and the right to go first in the Sprint, but the top starter in Sunday’s main menu would still be the Sprint winner and not the pole-position holder.
Decoupling
To clear this confusion, world governing body FIA and F1, in 2023, decided to run Sprint as a standalone event on Saturdays, with its own qualifying called Sprint Shootout. Qualification for Sunday’s main race was held Friday evening.
In 2024, this stop-start, incoherent order was rectified by conducting the qualification for the Sprint on Friday, and the Sprint race first up on Saturday. Qualifying for Sunday’s blue-ribbon competition would follow.
F1’s rationale for adding programmes is positive fan feedback. “Since the Sprint was introduced in 2021, data shows that total viewership of Sprint weekends is 12% higher than non-Sprint weekends,” the head honchos stated recently in a statement.
“Sprint Qualifying is up to three times more popular with fans than Free Practice; 82% of attendees at Sprint weekends say it adds value to their ticket; 75% of F1 fans believe Sprint events add greater value to a season’s calendar.”
Now that we are six years into the Sprint, it is a good time to explore what it has achieved.
Bitter-sweet
Every day of a Sprint weekend now has more purpose, and any competitive action is better than watching cars run by themselves.
But have these special occasions delivered anything memorable? Not much. In 2023, Max Verstappen clinched his third title at the Qatar GP Sprint, but that, for a purist, was a pedestrian way of crowning a World champion.
These contests haven’t been exciting because the format doesn’t differ much from a normal race day. Yes, there are no pit stops, which should enable drivers to race the wheels off to gain position.
However, that seldom happens, as the men behind the steering wheel are often risk-averse, especially if they are outside the points-scoring placings.
The racing maxim is that if faster cars start from behind, they will eventually move up, thereby building excitement. The 2005 Japanese GP, widely considered as one of the best races ever, is a good example.
Iconic drivers such as Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen started 14th, 16th and 17th respectively, after a rain-affected qualifying session. Raikkonen and Alonso charged up to the front, with the former clinching victory through a sensational pass on the final lap while the latter came home third.
In the junior formulas below F1, the Sprint is often a reverse-grid competition where the fastest among the top-eight drivers starts eighth. It is designed that way to help developing drivers learn to pass cars and build wheel-to-wheel racing skills.
In F1, however, the overriding focus is fairness, for the stakes are much higher. This has led to the organisers being less bold.
Once the cars clear the first-lap jeopardy, Sprints often settle into a predictable rhythm, without even the strategic differences found in the main race.
While only a handful of drivers have won both the Sprint and the Grand Prix in the same weekend, there have not been many outlier winners or podium-finishers to build excitement in Sprints either.
Ways to improve
Now that F1 has decided to double down on Sprints, the sport needs to figure out how to make it a distinct and exciting product rather than a mini-Grand Prix.
Reverse grids are an option, but they could be problematic in places where overtaking is difficult, like Monaco, which incidentally is one of 10 Sprint events next season. Drivers do not seem enamoured by the idea, as they feel it could have a significant impact on the Championship table.
Reinvigorate: Sprints, but for the opening-lap jeopardy, have become predictable. Adding some zest should be top priority.
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One way to jumble up the grids is to go back to one-shot qualifying, like in the early 2000s. In that format, drivers would go on to the track in a pre-determined order – Championship standings or results from the previous race – and get only one attempt to set their fastest lap. Even a small mistake could prove costly, or sudden rain during the session could trip them up.
F1 could also play around with tyre compounds. A bespoke, Sprint-specific compound that isn’t durable for the entire race can bring to the fore drivers’ tyre-management skills and spice up the racing, provided these events are run on tracks where overtaking is easier.
A 12% increase in viewership because of Sprints is indeed good, and the onus is now on F1 to do more to improve a product designed for spectacle than sporting purity. It is better to take a risk and fail than not try at all.
