F1 agrees major sprint weekend changes for 2024 season

Formula 1 have agreed changes to the format of sprint weekends, in the latest meeting of the F1 commission.

The weekends will now feature practice and sprint qualifying on a Friday, an action-packed Saturday with both the sprint race and qualifying for the main race, before the main event on a Sunday.

This new format has been deliberated upon at great length, following huge criticism about the way in which the weekends were able to operate in 2023.

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With just one practice session on a Friday before qualifying for the main race, drivers that encountered problems on a Friday were often out of position for Sunday's race.

As well as this, there was the opposite problem of team's treating Saturday's sprint as a completely separate entity, and often sacrificing it in the hope of gaining better data for Sunday's main race.

F1 sprint weekend changes

With there being six sprint events in the mammoth 2024 season, the F1 commission have acted to hopefully improve the spectacle for both fans and the teams.

While there has been no indication as of yet as to whether the points distribution will be changed in order to make a Saturday more competitive during sprint weekends, this format change is certainly a step in the right direction.

Drivers and pundits seemingly have lots of different views about how sprint races can be improved, with Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft even suggesting recently that a separate world championship should be considered for sprint events.

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