Just three days before the start of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the fourth race of the 2023 World Cup, Formula 1 has announced one last change in the format of the six Saturdays with the Sprint Race, the short race that it introduced in 2021. The Commission of the F1 has invented an express classification, the Sprint Shootout, to establish the starting grid for the Sprint Race. Likewise, the grid on Sunday will no longer depend on the short race as it has been up to now.
F1’s latest stunt to energize the grand prix has been to invent the Sprint Shootout: it will be a 30-minute qualifying mini-session to determine the grid for the short race (which was previously ordered with the official classification). It is also structured in three rounds: Q1 of 12 minutes (in which the five slowest cars are eliminated), Q2 of 10 minutes (five slowest out), and Q3 of 8 minutes with the 10 fastest. In the first two, the medium tire will be used, and in the third, the soft one.
Henceforth, in the six short-race grand prix (Baku, Spa, Losail, Austin, Red Bull Ring and Interlagos), Saturday’s result will not affect Sunday’s grid. In other words, the starting positions for the feature race will be determined, as always, by the one-hour official qualifying session (which will take place on Friday in Baku and on the other five special Saturdays).
With this reformulation, the six weekends with the Sprint Race will have a juicier program: a single free practice session (Friday morning) and qualifying (Grand Prix Qualifying) on ​​Friday: on Saturday there will be the qualifying mini-session for the Sprint Race (Sprint Shootout) and the short race (Sprint Race); and on Sunday, the long race.
