F1’s half-hearted sprint qualifying

Sprint races in Formula 1 were finally approved and announced this week after teams voted unanimously in favour of the experiment at three Grands Prix this year. Thus far however, the idea has received mixed reviews from people within the sport and fans around the world.

The sprints will be held three times over the course of the season, at the British and Italian Grands Prix and one other currently unknown venue. Qualifying as we know it will run on Friday afternoon following a single practice session. And that I think is a positive. It means the drivers will head into qualifying after just one hour of practice time to get their cars dialled in, which could lead to some jumbling of the order.