F1 bosses risk fresh Max Verstappen row as key change ‘considered’ for 2024
Formula One bosses are reportedly ‘considering’ adopting a reverse grid format for its sprint races next season. Six venues have been confirmed as hosting the controversial sprint races for the 2024 campaign.
China, Miami, Austria, Austin, Brazil and Qatar will host the sprint races next season. The events, which last season came after a qualifying session for the Grand Prix and a separate qualifying session for the sprint, came in for criticism from some drivers, including world champion Max Verstappen.
It is claimed that the format could be changed again ahead of the new season. Qualifying for the sprint race will reportedly take place on the Friday during the session after first practice. The sprint could then reportedly take place on the Saturday morning, allowing the Grand Prix qualifying to adopt its usual place in the afternoon.
Many drivers insisted that they wanted the final event before the Grand Prix to be its qualifying session. In October, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc both suffered damage during the United States sprint race that saw them subsequently disqualified from the next day’s Grand Prix.
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According to the Guardian, the biggest change to the sprint weekends could involve the grid line-up. The report claims that the grid could be reversed from the sprint qualifying, either for the entire grid or the top 10.
That change would run the risk of infuriating Verstappen, who sensationally threatened to quit if more changes were made to the sprint weekends. Sprint races were introduced in 2021, with three across the entire season. That number has since been doubled to six.
“I don’t find that it is in the DNA of Formula One to do these kind of sprint races. I hope there won’t be too many changes, otherwise I won’t be around for too long,” Verstappen said in Azerbaijan in April.
“I am not a fan of it at all. When we do all that kind of stuff, the weekend becomes very intense and we already do a lot of races.”
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Verstappen has been a vocal critic of sprint races over the last few years. He doubled down on his disliking for the events a few months later after the disqualifications in the US.
He said in November: “We should just get rid of the sprint weekend and then everyone can just set up their cars normally. It wouldn’t have happened that we would have had a normal race weekend.
“These things (damage) only happen when you have a sprint weekend where everything is so rushed into your in-between FP1 and qualifying.”
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