F1 is contemplating plans to extend the variety of dash weekends per season from six to 12, however the Bahrain check drew combined reactions from drivers.
The collection launched dash races to its weekend format in 2021, initially with simply three rounds, however finally doubled that quantity.
Nonetheless, on Wednesday, following a gathering with the present F1 committee, discussions had been held about rising the variety of sprints to 12 per season sooner or later.
The difficulty was raised with drivers at Thursday’s Bahrain check, and opinions had been divided.
To extend sprints, sprints will need to have worth
Williams driver Carlos Sainz was not against the concept, however believes F1 must tweak the format to supply extra worth earlier than including sprints to the schedule.
He was additionally cautious that this may result in an elevated variety of sprints to cowl the complete calendar.
“I am open-minded about it,” he started.
“I feel the format of the dash nonetheless must be fine-tuned and improved, given the truth that within the dash typically what occurs on Sunday reveals an excessive amount of.
“If we are able to enhance on that and make it a bit bit completely different dash than what you see on Sunday, we’re open to having extra dash races.
“Sadly, dash qualifying and Friday shall be even busier, and Saturday shall be even busier, so the workload for the drivers will enhance significantly.
“So I feel FOM and F1 additionally need to adapt the format of the race weekend a bit bit to accommodate the quantity of media and the quantity of PR exercise. We even have to offer them a bit little bit of time to organize for these races, as a result of the previous few years have been very robust for drivers in that sense.
“So, no offense right here in any respect, however you’ll be able to’t think about with the quantity of sponsors F1 groups have at the moment, the quantity of interviews we do, the quantity of selling we do.
“I feel I am open to doing extra time classes and creating extra reveals on the observe. However issues off the observe should be fine-tuned, as a result of a 24-race calendar with, say, 24 sprints, think about getting there someday, goes to be very robust for everybody usually.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is a fan of the dash format, however does not assume it ought to transcend the present six weekends.
“I actually agree with every part Carlos stated.
“The one factor I wish to add is that I truly love the dash weekend, however I nonetheless consider it needs to be a smaller variety of races and sooner or later it needs to be a standardized weekend. If and when that’s the plan, I do not assume it is proper.”
“A minimum of I do not need to be like that, however I will simply drive and adapt to it.
“However I feel six is most likely the candy spot.”
