F1 aiming for six "grand slam" sprint qualifying events - Ross Brawn

Sprint Qualifying

F1 aiming for six "grand slam" sprint qualifying events - Brawn

Sprint qualifying will be unveiled at this weekend's British Grand Prix

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Tuesday 13 July 2021 08:00

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Ross Brawn has revealed his ambition for F1 to host around six "grand slam" sprint qualifying events next season if this year's trials are successful.

Silverstone will see the inaugural sprint qualifying event take place this weekend with qualifying as we know it moved to Friday evening before a 100km sprint race is held on Saturday to determine the starting grid for the main race on Sunday.

There will be two further trial events after the British Grand Prix with a view to implementing the initiative next season, but Brawn has insisted he would not push for a full season of sprint qualifying.

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"In my own mind, and it's purely in my own mind with no discussion with the team or even our commercial group, it's something like half-a-dozen events. That feels to me like it would be a premier event during the season," explained Brawn.

"The point was made, and we have to understand, we can't diminish the non-sprint races. They have to still be a great success, a great weekend.

"So it's rather like the grand slam events of tennis and golf. How do you find that balance as to what may be a sprint event and what may be a normal weekend?

"Some of that will depend on the format on the nature of the track and how strong a support they get, is it an event that needs some enhancement, or is it an event that's very successful already.

'So there are all these factors to come into consideration.

"But in my own mind, and this is an unofficial view, something like half-a-dozen events next year would be a nice step to where we are now.

"I don't think we'd want to go to a complete season or sprint racing that quickly, but let's see how we get on this season."

F1 will not "sell out" if sprint event is failure

With F1 attempting to complete a 23 event calendar this season, narrowing down which six weekends to run sprint qualifying would be a difficult task.

Asked on what basis sprint events would be chosen, Brawn responded: "In any organisation, you will have people at each end of the scale. In our organisation, we will have our commercial people beating the commercial drum and we will have our racing people beating the racing drum.

"It will be up to Stefano, myself and one or two others to make a recommendation as to who should be the primary candidates, and the teams will have a say in that as well.

"It will be a blend, and I hope we can get the commercial benefit from all the venues we go to because that will be a stronger argument for the teams to want to do it.

"I don't think we will sell out on this because it has to be a success because if we go to circuits where it doesn't work and it doesn't offer any overall benefit then it will have a short life.

"We need to make sure we can go to circuits where we can demonstrate the value of this, the excitement and success of it, and we will go from there."