The format of sprint race weekends are set to change for the fourth time in fourth years, F1 teams agreed today.
The new format will see Sprint Shootouts moved to Friday afternoons, Sprint Races moved to Saturday mornings, whilst Grand Prix qualifying will be held on Saturday afternoons, just as they are on non-sprint weekends.
This is the fourth change to the format since it was introduced in 2021, which only had the top 3 score points during sprint races and no sprint shootout during its initial layout.
There will still be six Sprints held across the season, just as there had been during 2022 and 2023. The grand prix weekends that will feature Sprints are: China, Miami, Austria, USA, Sao Paulo and Qatar. China’s sprint weekend comes up first, taking place 19th-21st April, and it will be the first time the circuit hosts a Sprint event.
It has yet to be decided when parc ferme will be implemented in this new format, having come into effect as soon as cars went out for qualifying on Friday afternoons during the old formats.
The meeting also agreed to increase the allocation of power units for each driver going into 2024 and 2025 will be increased from four to five. DRS will now also be activated after one lap in all races, not just Sprints, going into the new season.
