After just one race, a number of drivers have admitted that they preferred the previous Sprint format.

Now in its fourth year the format has undergone just as many changes, and while drivers like Max Verstappen dislike the whole concept of the Sprint others are merely unhappy with the format.

This year witnessed yet another change, with the Shootout being held on Friday, following the sole practice session, and the Sprint on Saturday morning, ahead of qualifying for the race.

However, this year, unlike 2023, the teams are able to make changes to the cars between Saturday's two sessions, having been unable to make any changes after FP1 last year.

While the drivers welcome the changes to the parc ferme rules, they are not so enamoured with the weekend format.

"Actually, I probably preferred the old format myself," said Valtteri Bottas, "because there was only one practice and the qualifying straight after was for the main race. So there was a bit more at stake.

"As well as with the set-up, you wouldn't have the second chance to adjust it," he added. "So I liked that a bit before what we had last year."

"If I was just to add anything, I would just prefer having a Sprint qualifying and then having the GP qualifying the next morning," added Logan Sargeant. "I don't think it's great having a Sprint race where you're much slower than a qualifying lap and then straight to qualifying."

"I would say the same," agreed Oscar Piastri. "It felt a little bit weird having the Sprint race, because it's obviously a race in itself, kind of, and then preparing again for qualifying kind of feels like the race should be, I guess, the end of the day.

"But I think opening up parc fermé was a good thing for the drivers and the engineers," he added. "I'm not sure the mechanics appreciated it that much, but I think to repeat some of the stuff that happened last year, you know, with like, Lewis and Charles getting disqualified, I think we don't want to see people getting disqualified because they set their ride heights a bit wrong and they can't change. I think that was a good step forward."

"One big point is about opening the parc fermé," said Sergio Perez. "I think it puts a lot of workload on the mechanics and I think it's something that we really have to look at.

"It's 24 weekends a season and with these Sprint races I think it's a lot of load on our mechanics. So I think whether we look at it, change the format a bit to basically try to look after our people a little bit more as a sport, I think that's something really to look at it."

Asked about back-to-back Sprint events, as is the case this weekend, with China having also hosted one of the 'mini races', Perez said: "Like I said before, I think it puts a lot of workload on our mechanics. With the current format as it is, definitely I've seen some of my boys and it's definitely a lot of workload to be able to change the car right after the Sprint event, before qualifying, it just puts a lot of workload.

"I would really like that we will be able to review the format because so we are looking after our people in our sport."

"For me, having two in a row doesn't really make much difference," said Piastri. "For me, it's very much the same. You attack the weekend in a similar way. So yeah, it's not a big difference if they're together or not.

"I think some circuits are better for Sprints than others. But yeah, having two in a row for me makes no difference."

"I would just prefer 24 normal weekends," added Sargeant. "Leave it at that."

"It doesn't make a difference when they are," said Bottas. "I think it's in the end, it's six in a year anyway. So yeah, it doesn't make a difference."

"Two-day events would be nice, because we have so many race weekends now," opined Lance Stroll. "So many Thursdays. You know, like practice, three hours on a Saturday morning, qualify Saturday afternoon, race Sunday..."

"I agree," nodded Lewis Hamilton.

Check out our Friday gallery from Miami here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Celtic Tiger, 03/05/2024 13:55

"I hate sprint. Its overexposure and just causes fan fatigue. At the end of the day I still think its a money game, more points on offer inflates the price of super license renewal for the following year. I also wouldn't be surprised if the venues who host sprints have higher ticket prices than those who don't.

My little way of protest is just watching the highlights of sprints and the boring street races for free online through unofficial channels. "

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2. Posted by Max Noble, 03/05/2024 8:23

"It’s like having the horses before the grand national play a few rounds of knockout darts… Seriously… answering the question no one ever asked…
"

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Drivers preferred previous Sprint format

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