What do you think about the sprint race?

Since we've been seeing all kinds of conflicting takes in the "Rumors and News" section regarding this season's new sprint race format—and we’ve definitely spent plenty of time ranting about it—it'd be cool to see what everyone actually thinks now that there's a bit of breathing room after the season ends. Should they keep it or scrap it? 🤔

Just a quick refresher on how the sprint rules work and what the weekend schedule looks like:

FRIDAY: Practice 1, 60 minutes.

FRIDAY: Qualifying, 60 minutes (regular qualifying setup, but the results set the grid for the sprint, and you're locked into soft tires only).

SATURDAY: Practice 2, 60 minutes.

SATURDAY: The sprint race at 62 miles, where the finish sets the grid for Sunday's main event. Winner gets 3 points, second gets 2, third gets 1.

SUNDAY: The main race, free tire choice.

The whole point of this was to boost viewership on Saturdays. Formula 1 will probably run some polls through their F1TV subscriber data to check if numbers actually went up, but what's your take—did it actually work?

Compared to a normal race weekend, teams get way less prep time with this setup. Does that make the racing better or just mess things up?

One last thing: Were Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Monza, and São Paulo the right spots to test this out? Which tracks would you want to see a sprint at, or is this whole thing just one big failed experiment?

(Lots of questions, not enough answers. And honestly, I could go on forever. 😁 )

Ultimately, I find myself wondering if we shouldn't perhaps just bring the entire concept of sprint races back down to earth.

Honestly, I think they completely missed the mark here. It feels pretty pointless, especially since it doesn't really incentivize much if you're just looking at those top three spots and a handful of points.

But hey, I don't want to be a total buzzkill. Here’s a thought: instead of just handing out two points based on the Sprint result, what if we used the Sprint outcome as a multiplier for the main race points?
The top ten could trigger these multipliers—for instance, 1st place gets a 50% boost, 2nd place gets 45%... maybe 6th place gets 30%... down to 10th place getting a 5% bump on whatever they score in the Sunday Grand Prix.

So, if someone wins the Sprint, they'd have a 1.5x coefficient. If they finish 4th in the main race on Sunday, instead of the usual 12 points, they’d walk away with 18. Or, if they take 3rd in the Sprint and then win the big race on Sunday, instead of 25 points, they’d grab 35.

The sprint format is just... honestly? It's kind of garbage.

There’s potential here. They really ought to pair this concept with tracks that statistically see more overtaking opportunities.

The whole concept of the sprint races in this current setup just isn't what they should be. We don't really have a standard Grand Prix weekend, and we certainly don't have a real Sprint. We need to draw a line somewhere and figure out how to actually do this better.

That points system—giving 3 for P1, 2 for P2, and 1 for P3—is honestly a joke. Why wouldn't we have a Sprint where more points are actually on the table? They could extend the scoring to more positions while still ensuring the top three get a bigger chunk than P4 and below. That would actually create some real stakes. Right now, the Sprint format feels like a procession where drivers are too scared to take risks because there are SO many more points up for grabs on Sunday. Why settle for soup when you could have a steak?

I have another idea too, something that’s kind of a mix between Formula E and NASCAR. It's a Crazy sprint that would award a total number of points equal to a standard Grand Prix weekend. This style would work great for tracks that aren't generally that exciting. The format would look like this:

Friday / 60 minutes of practice + 60 minutes of practice
Saturday / 60 minutes of qualifying to set the grid for the first Crazy sprint (93 miles race)
Sunday / 60 minutes of qualifying to set the grid for the second Crazy sprint (93 miles race)

Crazy sprint scoring: p1/16, p2/12, p3/10, p4/8, p5/6, p6/5, p7/4, p8/3, p9/2 and p10/1

I’d probably go even further. Maybe one or both of those Crazy sprint races could be part of a separate competition that counts toward the regular Formula 1 championship. Formula E used to have the Voestalpine European Cup, which covered all the races in Europe. At the end of it, whoever earns the most points in the Sprint series could get a nice trophy at the FIA Gala.

A Crazy sprint would be perfect for the less interesting tracks, and we could increase the DRS detection to 2 seconds. And obviously, if a track offers multiple configurations, it would be a blast. On a standard track, we’d have the normal race, and then for somewhere like Bahrain, you could have two Crazy sprint weekends using the outer ring and Endurance setups. One location, five races! Just imagine a Crazy sprint at Paul Ricard with the 1.2 miles Mistral, or even Jerez.

With Crazy sprints added, the Formula 1 calendar would easily hit 30+ races per season.

Here’s my idea for what the Sprint Cup champion trophy might look like—something presented during the FIA Gala night. I’m picturing a classic cylindrical base, maybe crafted from epoxy or simple glass, accented with gold-painted details.



So, in my version of things, the Formula 1 championship would run alongside a dedicated Formula 1 Sprint championship. Each race would feature its own unique qualifying session, starting from 93 miles position, similar to how Formula E handles their double headers.

The sprint format is honestly a mess.
They really need to lift those fuel flow restrictions and open things up by bringing in more tire suppliers.
And while they're at it, just get rid of blue flags entirely.
There is just so much that needs to be addressed before the series actually starts looking good again...

From a viewer's perspective—not that it matters—I’m really not feeling this sprint format thing. It just drags out my weekend way more than I actually want. I read somewhere that they pushed the qualifying and sprint times later just to cater to working fans who need to catch the action late at night. Honestly, it would be cool to see some actual stats to prove if that move even worked. Personally, I don't just watch the race; I tune into qualifying and all the practice sessions too. I actually enjoy watching how the teams prep for the main event. But for me, having qualifying and the sprint so late in the day right after practice feels off—maybe that's just me being a creature of habit, but it doesn't sit right. In Monza, qualifying wrapped up around 7 PM, and for a daytime race here in the States, that timing just feels unnatural.

From the teams' side of things, the sprint seems like a total headache. They barely have enough time to get through the practice sessions to gather meaningful data on car behavior, tire wear, or long stints compared to a standard race weekend. So they head into the race with a massive element of uncertainty—which isn't exactly a huge advantage for anyone.

If they don't scrap this format later this season (which, let's be real, would be great), they should at least switch up the tracks. These last three sprint races were brutally boring. And please, don't jump to more than three different tracks—they were already talking about six, which sounds exhausting. 🤦

Gregory Brown94 said:The whole concept of the sprint races in this current setup just isn't what they should be. We don't really have a standard Grand Prix weekend, and we certainly don't have a real Sprint. We need to draw a line somewhere and figure out how to actually do this better.

That points system—giving 3 for P1, 2 for P2, and 1 for P3—is honestly a joke. Why wouldn't we have a Sprint where more points are actually on the table? They could extend the scoring to more positions while still ensuring the top three get a bigger chunk than P4 and below. That would actually create some real stakes. Right now, the Sprint format feels like a procession where drivers are too scared to take risks because there are SO many more points up for grabs on Sunday. Why settle for soup when you could have a steak?

I have another idea too, something that’s kind of a mix between Formula E and NASCAR. It's a Crazy sprint that would award a total number of points equal to a standard Grand Prix weekend. This style would work great for tracks that aren't generally that exciting. The format would look like this:

Friday / 60 minutes of practice + 60 minutes of practice
Saturday / 60 minutes of qualifying to set the grid for the first Crazy sprint (93 miles race)
Sunday / 60 minutes of qualifying to set the grid for the second Crazy sprint (93 miles race)

Crazy sprint scoring: p1/16, p2/12, p3/10, p4/8, p5/6, p6/5, p7/4, p8/3, p9/2 and p10/1

I’d probably go even further. Maybe one or both of those Crazy sprint races could be part of a separate competition that counts toward the regular Formula 1 championship. Formula E used to have the Voestalpine European Cup, which covered all the races in Europe. At the end of it, whoever earns the most points in the Sprint series could get a nice trophy at the FIA Gala.

A Crazy sprint would be perfect for the less interesting tracks, and we could increase the DRS detection to 2 seconds. And obviously, if a track offers multiple configurations, it would be a blast. On a standard track, we’d have the normal race, and then for somewhere like Bahrain, you could have two Crazy sprint weekends using the outer ring and Endurance setups. One location, five races! Just imagine a Crazy sprint at Paul Ricard with the 1.2 miles Mistral, or even Jerez.

With Crazy sprints added, the Formula 1 calendar would easily hit 30+ races per season.

Man, you've always got plenty of opinions, don't you? 🙏

This sprint weekend is a total mess, and honestly, that’s why it’s pointless...
If they’d actually used some brainpower designing this, it might work. As it stands, it’s just nonsense that looks like it was cooked up by some drunk guy stumbling down the street who hasn't a clue how Formula 1 works...
The whole weekend is basically ruined because the FP sessions make zero sense, we have a race on Saturday that isn't even a real race, and Friday qualifying doesn't feel like qualifying either 😵
And let's be real, nobody has any idea what FP2 is actually supposed to be for...

The only upside to the sprint was having freedom to pick tires for the race, which added some flavor, but they could've easily done that without the sprint...
It’s been a joke for a long time that you have to start on your Q2 tires. The top teams breeze through on mediums anyway (they'd probably manage on hards too🤦) and that usually just kills qualifying,
because the mid-field teams, instead of aiming for Q3, mostly just settle for starting at P11...
Why bother fighting for Q3 to secure P10 when most of them can't pull it off anyway? Plus, you completely wreck your race because starting on softs is a massive no-no...

Look, Formula 1 has been totally butchered over the last 20 years—it’s barely even the same sport anymore. So, if we just treat this "new" version of Formula 1 as its own thing entirely, separate from the old era? Then the sprint format is actually killer! It just cranks up the excitement even more.

Formula 1 is a sport with roots stretching back over a century, and obviously, there was all sorts of chaos long before it officially became the sport we know today at Silverstone in 1950 and beyond. Throughout its history, we've seen different eras, and naturally, most of them are shrouded in a fair amount of myth-making.

So, it’s completely normal to be obsessed with one specific era and then refuse to accept whatever comes next. Thank goodness I'm not one of those people, though. To be honest, I wasn't a fan of the sprint format at first either, until I saw what happened at Silverstone. Growing pains are just part of the deal for Formula 1. One thing is certain: as an individual, there isn't a single thing I can do to change how Formula 1 operates. I'll either watch and enjoy it, or I'll stop watching entirely—but the fact remains that a fan who's been following this sport for over 20 years isn't just going to turn their back on it that easily.

At the end of the day, the sprint format has some flaws in how it's implemented and presented, but there's clearly still a lot of work to be done if they plan on bringing it to more tracks.

In my view, the sprint format is one of the best additions to Formula 1. There are areas for improvement, though. More drivers should earn points—not just the top three—so others actually have an incentive to take risks. I’m generally in favor of having a sprint at every race. I dislike this inconsistent mixing... though it's true some tracks aren't built for it (for instance, I highly doubt a sprint in Monaco would make any sense).
From my perspective, the logic is simple. I rarely watched qualifying before, but last year I tuned in for almost every session because the sprint caught my interest. Once I started watching, I kept watching the standard qualifying sessions out of pure habit. So, I am absolutely FOR it.

If anything needs changing in Formula 1, it's the run-off areas. They need to be redesigned so a driver simply cannot gain an advantage by cutting corners (using foam barriers, narrow gravel traps, etc.).

I'm guessing most people here absolutely loathe the sprint, but man, these numbers caught me off guard—apparently 70% of you are straight-up allergic to the sprint race. Makes me wonder how much this hardcore Formula 1 crowd differs from the average US viewer, and if our poll actually means anything. 😁

Btw, Alonso says the fans should be the ones deciding: https://www.planetf1.com/news/fernan...-sprint-races/

Not really a fan of letting viewers call the shots, though. Most people don't have any taste—honestly, what would we even complain about if they just gave us everything we wanted? 🤣

Just let Obrvan know that we cast our votes, and honestly, the numbers are crystal clear.

Linda Peterson43 said:The sprint format is honestly a mess.
They really need to lift those fuel flow restrictions and open things up by bringing in more tire suppliers.
And while they're at it, just get rid of blue flags entirely.
There is just so much that needs to be addressed before the series actually starts looking good again...

Plus, they should probably give them more than just a couple of days to test, rather than letting some amateur hobbyists jump in with zero preparation.
We need way more track time.