FIA have opened themselves up to ‘even more criticism’ with key 2024 F1 change

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The FIA have opened themselves up to more criticism this year after the changes they’ve made to the Sprint Race format for the 2024 season.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if Formula 1 has simply given Max Verstappen six more opportunities to take the chequered flag first this campaign.

Speaking on The Race Podcast, journalist Glenn Freeman has explained why the changes don’t make much sense.

FIA changes to 2024 Sprint Race weekends don’t make sense

Formula 1 fans have been witnessing the Sprint Race since the British Grand Prix in 2021.

That weekend, qualifying took place for the Sprint Race on the Friday afternoon before the result of the race – won by Verstappen – was on pole position for the main event on Sunday.

The format remained unchanged for 2022’s three Sprint Races, but an alternation was made last year.

In 2023, the number of Sprint events was doubled to six and the format of the race weekend changed too.

Qualifying for the main race moved to Friday, while the whole of Saturday was taken up by the newly-named Sprint Shootout and then the Sprint Race before Sunday’s main Grand Prix.

The FIA has made another change to the Sprint format for 2024 that may make even less sense.

The format – and sometimes the races themselves – have proved to be so confusing that it’s hard to justify their existence at this point.

With Red Bull’s current state of domination, it does feel like six more opportunities to further extend their lead over the rest of the field.

Sprint Races here to stay despite mass indifference

Speaking about the changes, Freeman said: “I think the new Sprint format for this year has had an easy ride.

“While I wasn’t a massive fan of Sprint Saturday, I think the new Sprint format is worse.

“You’ve now got a missable session on Friday instead of an important one in Sprint qualifying.

“F1 have basically shown us that the Sprint Race isn’t important which is what fans were saying already because they put it before qualifying.

“So, on the Saturday, the Sprint Race is now the sideshow which I don’t think makes any sense either.

“They’ve made it all less relevant and I think they’ve opened themselves up to even more criticism of what is the point of this format.”

The FIA has made a couple of key tweaks to the Sprint Race weekend for 2024 that will debut in China at the fifth race of the season.

The single Friday practice session remains, but qualifying for the main race on Friday afternoon is now replaced by qualifying for the Sprint Race.

The Sprint Race itself is now the first session on Saturday, followed by traditional qualifying later in the day before Sunday’s main Grand Prix.

Some teams will be worried about any damage sustained in the less important Sprint Race affecting their performance in qualifying for the much more valuable Grand Prix.

It’s hard to see just how long this format will survive at this rate.