Formula One's first of six 2023 Sprints is almost upon us, with the Baku streets hosting the short-form race for the first time at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The 100km dash hasn't won the hearts and minds of audiences over the last two seasons, with fans complaining of artificial entertainment. I'm no traditionalist, and even my eyes roll when realising there's an upcoming Grand Prix weekend with extra homework of watching Sprint. Yet this time, I'm a little more open-minded.
For 2023, the sport is shifting away from the unnecessary confusion of the Qualifying-not-actually-being-Grand-Prix-Qualifying-but-Qualifying-for-the-Sprint-Race-that-is-actually-a-qualifying-race format. Instead, we're set for a self-contained Sprint Saturday. In short, Qualifying sets the order for the Grand Prix, with an extra Qualifying session creating the grid for the Sprint.
The result should be (and there's a lot of heavy lifting by that 'should be' there) a Sprint Race with all 20 drivers not holding back. For the drivers, a crash or mechanical failure in Sprint won't see them starting in last place for the Grand Prix.
By comparison, the previous six Sprints have felt like an extra 100km prelude to the full-length race that often makes Sunday's main event worse, not better. This revision means guts-or-glory defensive driving or daredevil overtaking won't spell Grand Prix disaster should they go wrong, meaning the drivers have more reason to try them. I can already picture Señor Alonso's smiling face.
Having three Free Practice sessions has unexpectedly become a hot topic for F1 in 2023, with many drivers labelling the three hours of testing unnecessary for racers of their abilities and teams with buckets of data for any given track. It's hard to dispute that, seeing as each will spend the weeks before any race weekend putting virtual miles in their team's state-of-the-art simulator to hone muscle memory and guide car setup. With only Free Practice 1 surviving Azerbaijan's Sprint weekend running order reshuffle, we'll soon see if those words were correct.
However, I'm in two minds about the situation. On one hand, the previous Sprint format never won me over, with only Lewis Hamilton's fightback after a technical grid penalty in 2021's Brazilian Grand Prix's Sprint being the sole memorable race. So, yes, a restructure of the weekend is welcome if F1 wants to pursue the Sprint experiment.
On the other hand, my other annoyance from the Sprint remains — three days of competitive action. I'm as much of an F1 fan as anyone, never missing a race or qualifying session. Yet Friday's Free Practice is always optional viewing – and often background viewing, at that – and Sprint weekends, new format or old, change everything.
Baku will see four competitive F1 sessions: Grand Prix Qualifying, Sprint Qualifying, the Sprint Race, and the Grand Prix. Tremendous value for bums in Azerbaijan grandstand seats but a weekend destroyer for fans not attending in the other ~200 countries.
Take away the Monday-to-Friday 9-5 job argument that's quick to make, even though most people don't work on that schedule. The problem is trying to get fans to tune in for 1-2 hours four times over a weekend in four distinct blocks at the time of the week when most people socialise with friends or family. It's a huge ask, and I'm not sure it'll pay off.
I'm aware that many forego Qualifying already, only concentrating on the race and are happy to see the starting order for the first time as the drivers begin their formation lap. In 2023, even those fans have an extra six races to tune into — on Saturdays — in an already record-breaking 23-round season. That's 29 races for anyone who wants to keep on the season's story, or, putting it in perspective, 10 more races than a decade ago in 2013. Wow.
I remain a Sprint sceptic but accepting of Azerbaijan's alterations, for the moment, at least. We have what is hopefully a format improvement, but whether F1 needs a Sprint format at all is still quite the question I have qualms over.
If Formula 1 is going to put quantity over quality, as they seem insistent on, Baku's Sprint experiment might be the weekend where wavering fans switch off. For the long-term health of F1, I hope the format change works well or is disastrous enough to be doomed. Anywhere in between feels like a step in no direction, and Sprint needs to succeed or say goodbye in this third year of trying.
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