Lewis Hamilton calls for two-day F1 weekends

Hamilton, Mercedes, Britain — Photo: © LAT Images

British Grand Prix

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Hamilton calls for two-day F1 weekends

Reigning champion feels new format justifies call for shorter events

Will Gray

Sunday 18 July 2021 09:30

Lewis Hamilton believes the inaugural sprint at the British Grand Prix proves F1 could run a two-day weekend format in the future.

The Silverstone event saw the trial of the sprint qualifying concept on Saturday to decide the race grid, with Hamilton finishing second to Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

That was preceded by a qualifying session on Friday that determined the line-up for the 100-kilometre event.

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“This weekend has been awesome," said Hamilton. "It was such a fun day, to have qualifying on a Friday, way more enjoyable the way it was set up, the one [practice] session and straight into qualifying.

“In my opinion, it only needs to be a Saturday and Sunday weekend. That means we have one whole day less, 23 days actually, less of driving these cars around the track and obviously that would be better in terms of going greener.”

Hamilton not keen on sprint adventure

Hamilton finished fastest in the traditional qualifying session on Friday but lost pole to Verstappen in the sprint after the Dutchman made a better start in the 17-lap sprint.

Despite his success, even Verstappen felt the traditional flying lap format should remain the method of deciding pole, while Hamilton is concerned the sprint failed to excite.

“It’s so difficult for us to pass and, unfortunately, with these cars you need pit stops and strategy to help sometimes, otherwise it’s so hard to get close," assessed the seven-time champion.

“It’s always nice doing more races, that’s for sure, but [on Sunday] we’ve only got one event, right? It’s almost like they should do the sprint race on Sunday and the race because there could be a lot of sitting around for people.

“I don’t know whether that [the sprint] was the most exciting or not but we should do more like that, maybe a different version of it in future, because it just makes the weekend more enjoyable.”