Heads of F1 are looking to completely change the sprint format after understanding the current format is not exciting enough.
Seen as too boring, the Austin sprint race saw Max Verstappen take another win. With little action, the race triggered a lack of interest from fans with ticket sales taking a hit.
In response, F1 believes change is needed and, while committed to the format, they’re aiming to revamp the F1 weekend.
No formal proposals have been made at this moment, however, potential changes could be made for 2024.
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The changes include turning Saturdays into standalone F1 Sprint championships. This would mean any points on a Saturday would not count towards the main F1 championship.
“Where you do a reverse the top 10 or something, you’ve got to add enough points to make it worth the drivers to really go for it.”
On top of this, it would avoid this year’s incident of Verstappen winning a championship on a Saturday. While a first, it ultimately made his third championship anti-climatic, racing again once he had taken the title.
With concerns the sprint is not taken seriously enough by drivers, a cash prize of $1 million was also discussed.
While this could apparently only be enough to pay off an FIA fine, it’s hoped it could make Saturdays more competitive.
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Other discussed changes are reversed grids which would see the top ten switched or the order put back to forth. This could be based on qualifying, with drivers still pushing for a good lap time for Sunday’s race.
“Creating artificial gaming around the sprint race on a Saturday is not the way that I would favour personally.”
These changes come after Christian Horner criticised the current rules, suggesting there is not enough jeopardy.
He said: “Where you do a reverse the top 10 or something, you’ve got to add enough points to make it worth the drivers to really go for it.”
However, keeping to character, Toto Wolff has disagreed with Horner, believing reverse grid is not right for the pinnacle of motorsport.
Asked by Autosport for his views, he said: “I’d rather have no sprint races than if you start to meddle.
“Even more with reverse grid races, we are going towards junior Formula E where sport follows entertainment. 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.”
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