Though he rules out Sprints at every race weekend, F1 CEO, Stefano Domenicali admits there will be more of the 'mini races' moving forward.

Last year saw three Sprints and this year there are six, albeit with a new format that sees Saturday become a stand-alone for the controversial events.

Speaking to investors, Stefano Domenicali has admitted that the intention, moving forward, is to increase the number of Sprints.

"The result of the first one of this year has been very encouraging," he said, referring to last weekend's event in Baku. "Every one of our partners, promoters, media partners, and also the teams, were very positive about that.

"Of course, there is something that we want to take as a lesson learned to see at the end of summer if there is something that we can learn to do something better," he added. "But in general terms, the first weekend of the sprint format has been great."

Despite the Italian's insistence, not everyone is a fan of the Sprint, most notably Max Verstappen, who admits that the format could cause him to rethink his future in F1.

Fans are also divided, but emboldened by the success of Drive to Survive, Domenicali claims this is the way forward.

"When you want to do something different in a very standardised ecosystem, the reaction of the, let's say, the traditional fans is the one that needs to be awaited for longer term," he said. "But normally with the new fans, we've seen a very, very positive reaction.

"The promoters are pushing for it, but we don't want to go in a situation where in the future we're going to have all the races with the sprint format. We want to keep a limited number, maybe one-third of the calendar, and create something special with regard to the competition that we can give sporting value with trophies and, of course, commercial opportunities. That's the right way to go."

As if that wasn't enough, and possibly a warning to Red Bull in light of some of the criticism of its domination of the sport at present, he appeared to suggests more 'flexibility' in terms of the regulations.

"Another thing I think is important is that I see a big trend today in motorsport not to be stable, let's say, to not stay consistent with the regulations.

"We are just following what baseball and the NBA have done, which means all professional sports need to listen to the requests and the input that the fans, promoters, and partners are providing, to have more excitement around the game."

You have been warned.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by trackrecords, 10/05/2023 23:11

"From where on earth could the American owners of F1 get their sprint race inspiration?

Doesn't NASCAR have 'sprint' races too?
Would that mean we too have bare-knuckle fist fights between drivers, where a motor race breaks out?

If Max wants to walk away then Domenicali should call his bluff - the English driver that beat him to the karting KF3 title would gladly take his place. And his dad would look a lot happier too?

Also, if Domenicali wants some suggestions for regulation flexibility, can I propose a ban on sponsorship or team names with a bovine connection?
"

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2. Posted by elsiebc, 10/05/2023 20:03

"I found the single practice, double quali, double race format to be a rather bland weekend. It had none of the buildup that the three practice, quali, race has."

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3. Posted by Tyrbiter, 08/05/2023 21:27

"Oh no, not again."

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4. Posted by Anthony, 07/05/2023 17:52

"Are the Americans sure that the rest of the world wants F1 to adopt the approach taken by baseball and the NBA in the US……?"

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5. Posted by Superbird70, 07/05/2023 17:41

"Only issue with NBA and MLB is that they wait until the off season to discuss and usually use a feeder league or preseason to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed change. What F1 is doing, I would have called a 'spiral adjust' in my youth."

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6. Posted by rambler, 07/05/2023 16:13

""Every one of our partners, promoters, media partners, and also the teams, were very positive about that." Positive it was crap. Oh just get the script writers in and rename F1 to WWF1.

"Another thing I think is important is that I see a big trend today in motorsport not to be stable, let's say, to not stay consistent with the regulations."

Is this an almost admission that they are fixing the world championship? Smacks a bit of Roller ball change the rules in the middle of the game."

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F1 targets more Sprints in future

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