Andreas Seidl, McLaren Formula 1 team principal, liked the idea of sprint this year. But he would like to keep the sprint races limited to specific tracks.
Formula 1 has introduced sprint race, of 100km, last Saturday at the British Grand Prix. The authorities wanted to re-shape the qualifying sessions. Two more events are expected this year.
Fans remain engaged for consecutive three days. The teams had to fetch the fastest qualifying lap on Friday rather than usual Saturday. Fans remained captivated on Saturday afternoon while witnessing the sprint race, which decided the grid places for Sunday’s race.
First sprint race had mixed reviews overall. However, Fernando Alonso made the highlight of the race by gaining five places.
F1 has been open about these races in 2021 on Silverstone, Monza and one more track. This format is being analyzed and could possibly lead to more such races next year depending upon it popularity.
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Ross Brawn, F1 motorsports managing director, revealed if these races became popular then this format could stretch to at least six races next year.
Seidl on Sprint Races
Seidl, McLaren F1 chief, felt it was too early to predict the maximum number of sprint races in a season. However, he insisted on limiting these to specific tracks rather than standard for all.
“It is good that we have these trials now this year for three weekends,” Seidl said.
“As I said yesterday, I think it is good also to take our time together with the fans and our partners and all teams, with Formula 1, with the FIA, to analyse exactly how this weekend went and then make conclusions based on that.
“I think that is just an initial view, I think it is a good idea to only use it for specific event and tracks for a different format.
“I don’t see, for example, it being the standard for all weekends.”
Seidl believes that first sprint race weekend went as expected. It also provided signs on how the actual race would roll out for teams.
“I would say the weekend played out in terms of strategy and tyres as we had anticipated,” Seidl said.
“The sprint race in the end gave a good picture of where everyone has been in terms of race pace.
“It was obvious to see that Charles was already very strong and we couldn’t beat him yesterday and the same happened again today.
“I would say no big surprises and no big learnings from the sprint race that changed anything for the race today.”
