Yahoo Autos F1 Commission approves changes to Sprint race scheduling
F1’s Sprint schedule will now see earlier Saturday races followed by main qualifying after changes were approved by the Formula 1 Commission.
Sprint race weekends have been under review for a number of months, and RACER understands the topic of reverse grids was given serious consideration. However, the final changes that have been settled on are simply to the timing of sessions to make it easier to follow as a race weekend unfolds.
Fridays will now have FP1 followed by the Sprint Shootout later on the same day, and then the Sprint takes place on Saturday ahead of main qualifying for the grand prix itself. There remains six Sprints on the schedule this year in China, Miami, Austria, Austin, Brazil and Qatar.
Also approved during the F1 Commission meeting was an increase of main power unit components to four per driver for each of the 2024 and 2025 seasons, while there are also changes to the way DRS will be handled during races. Previously, DRS was only activated after two laps following a race start or restart, but that will now take place after one lap of racing.
All of the changes need to be formally ratified by the World Motor Sport Council at its next meeting on February 28 ahead of the start of the new F1 season.
