Ferrari F1 star Charles Leclerc nervous over radical proposal from Stefano Domenicali

Stefano Domenicali and Charles Leclerc look at one another in front of a Ferrari background — Photo: © IMAGO

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Ferrari star Leclerc nervous over radical proposal from F1 chief

Could sprint races be set for a change?

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 27 September 2025 10:55

Ferrari F1 star Charles Leclerc has voiced his concerns about a radical proposal put forward by F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.

Having recently announced the sprint race calendar for 2026, Domenicali suggested that there could be more sprint events in the future, and that changes could be made to the format of said races, including reverse grid order.

Sprint races were first introduced in 2021 and have seen many changes to their format already, but they are an extra race crammed into the weekend schedule at certain race weekends on the calendar.

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In 2025, the six sprint events have taken place at China, Miami, Belgium, Austin, Brazil and the Qatar Grand Prix.

GPFans understands talks are set to be held between F1 and the FIA over a variety of changes including increased sprint races and reverse grids, with F1 chief Domenicali also discussing potential changes in a recent interview.

Now, Ferrari star Leclerc has suggested that there should not be any more sprint weekends added to the calendar, and that the current format for the sprint races is fine as it is.

"My personal opinion is that I think the amount of sprint races we have at the moment is good enough and I wouldn't want to go more than that," Leclerc said at last weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix. "The reverse grid... I don't know, not on a normal weekend at least.

"On a sprint weekend, why not consider for the sprint race but it's really not something that I see should be part of Formula 1's DNA. I think the way Formula 1 is at the moment is where I think it should stay and I don't think we've got to reinvent anything."

Reverse grids are currently used for sprint races in feeder series F2 and F3, with the driver who qualified in 10th starting the sprint race from pole before returning to 10th for the feature race later in the weekend.

Sprint races adding to championship drama?

In 2025, we currently have a three-horse drivers' championship battle between Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

Verstappen is 69 points behind Piastri after his win last weekend in Baku, and ordinarily wouldn't be seen as part of a championship battle with just seven race weekends to go.

However, there are still three sprint events left, which mean an extra 24 points on offer on top of the 175 available in the remaining grands prix races.

That makes the three sprint races remaining vitally important in the battle to claim drivers' championship success, and they are arguably adding to the thrill of the tantalising battle for the title.

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Charles Leclerc Stefano Domenicali