F1 reveals MAJOR changes for Miami and Austin races

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F1 reveals MAJOR changes for Miami and Austin races

There has been much debate recently about how best to utilise the sprint format

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 6 February 2024 17:57

Formula 1 have agreed to change the protocols for their sprint race weekends in 2024, a move which will impact two American races.

The weekends will now feature practice and sprint qualifying on a Friday, an action-packed Saturday with both the sprint race and qualifying for the feature race, before the main event on a Sunday.

This new format has been deliberated upon at great length, following huge criticism about the way in which the weekends were able to operate in 2023.

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With just one practice session on a Friday before qualifying for the main race, drivers who encountered problems on a Friday were often out of position for Sunday's race.

As well as this, there was the opposite problem of team's treating Saturday's sprint as a completely separate entity, and often sacrificing it in the hope of gaining better data for Sunday's main race.

The scramble into the first corner is something that F1 fans get to see twice during sprint weekends

David Croft has his own plan for F1's sprint weekends

F1 sprint weekend changes

With there being six sprint events in the mammoth 2024 season, the F1 commission have acted to hopefully improve the spectacle for both fans and the teams.

Drivers and pundits seemingly have lots of different views about how sprint races can be improved, with Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft even suggesting recently that a separate world championship should be considered for sprint events.

🚨 | BREAKING: FIA confirm 2024 Sprint Format

FRI: Practice 1, Sprint qualifying
SAT: Sprint race, Grand Prix qualifying
SUN: Grand Prix
— formularacers (@formularacers_) February 5, 2024