FIA confirms no change to F1 Sprint format despite pole criticism

Hamilton en verstappen side to side — Photo: © LAT Images

Italian Grand Prix

FIA confirms no change to F1 Sprint format despite pole criticism

Pole position will be given to the winner of Saturday's sprint and not the fastest qualifier on Friday

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Thursday 9 September 2021 15:15

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FIA race director Michael Masi has revealed there has been no change to the race procedure for F1's second 'sprint' trial at the Italian Grand Prix this weekend.

After the inaugural test at Silverstone was generally met with positivity, F1 will again qualify on Friday before running a 100km 'sprint' on Saturday to determine the grid for Sunday's grand prix at Monza.

Asked if there had been any procedural changes ahead of the weekend, Masi said: "No changes.

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"We all had a very good discussion following the first event at Silverstone, the FIA, F1 and the teams, and we all agreed we would do the identical thing at Monza from a regulatory perspective.

"Yes, there will be some extra activities to F1 going on separate, but from a race perspective, we will do everything the same and then sit down following Monza and see if we need to make any further tweaks for the third event, wherever that will be."

FIA looking at "finessing" sprint rules

One criticism of the inaugural sprint weekend was that the fastest qualifier on Friday was not statistically awarded pole position.

With a third trial scheduled for later in the season, the FIA and F1 are aware a sample of various races must be taken in order to finetune the format instead of making knee-jerk reactions.

"There's a couple of procedural things that we would certainly look at and as we said, it is not dealing with a sample of one," explained Masi.

"It is 'let's actually do this twice and get a better understanding' and everyone is on exactly the same page - ten teams, the FIA, F1 are all on completely the same page. But more minor things, nothing wholesale.

"The parc fermé procedures, the jobs the FIA team had were huge. Looking at all the different bits and pieces but it wouldn't be... nothing we have discussed is wholesale, it is finessing."