F1 won't force through sprint qualifying to avoid repeat of past elimination "fiasco"

British Grand Prix

F1 won't force through sprint qualifying to avoid repeat of past elimination "fiasco"

The inaugural sprint qualifying event takes place at the British Grand Prix

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Saturday 17 July 2021 15:35

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Ross Brawn is adamant F1 will 'never force through' a full sprint qualifying schedule for future years if the format does not work in order to avoid the elimination fiasco of five years ago.

The idea of a driver being eliminated every 90 seconds during qualifying was brought in for two doomed grands prix in 2016 at the request of former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, sparking brutal criticism before it was ditched.

With the first sprint trial up and running at the British Grand Prix this weekend, Brawn has insisted the scheme will not be given the green light should it also prove unpopular.

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"We will never force this through if it’s clearly not a success," said Brawn. "There’s no incentive in doing it if the audience doesn’t engage, if we don’t see a strong engagement from the fans and we don’t see the benefits.

"There’s no reason why we would force it through. One of the great things about what’s happening is it’s three races, it’s not the season.

"In the past F1 has always struggled with the fact that when it’s made an adjustment it’s made it theoretically for the season. We all remember the qualifying fiasco a few years ago, which luckily got corrected partway through the season.

"That was one that everyone forecast was going to be a struggle and it turned out to be.

"So, this is three events where we are going to trial this format and if it’s not a success, if we don’t get the response we hope, then we’ll put our hands up and we will stay where we are and look at other initiatives.

"But I would just ask the traditionalists to wait and see if they enjoy it. Hopefully, they will."

F1 can make cricket-like impact

Brawn pointed to cricket as an example of how the sprint qualifying could help draw in potential new interest to F1.

Traditional test cricket - played over five days - has been backed up in recent times by an increase in one-day internationals and Twenty20 cricket, which take considerably less time to reach a result.

"Because it’s an addition to the weekend, if we draw fans in on a Saturday and then they engage with us and follow through on a Sunday, then that will be a success," added Brawn.

"I don’t like to make analogies but I think with short-format cricket, we’ve seen a much bigger engagement with test cricket now because short format cricket’s drawn fans in and from short format cricket and the engagement of that, test cricket seems to be thriving now, whereas it was struggling a bit a few years ago.

"So we have to be nimble but not to change so quickly that we confuse the fans and we alienate our traditional fans, so it’s just finding that balance and that’s what we’re setting out to do."