Stefano Domenicali admits there will be changes to one key event during 2024 season

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Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has admitted there will be changes made ahead of the 2024 season to the Sprint Race format.

Domenicali was speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.

Although he didn’t get a final lap shootout for the title like in 2021, it was still an entertaining race.

Charles Leclerc curiously gave up second place on track to try and earn Ferrari more points in their battle with Mercedes.

Yuki Tsunoda put in a fantastic performance further down the pack but couldn’t quite finish in sixth like he needed to for AlphaTauri to leapfrog Williams.

However, the fact Max Verstappen took his 19^th win of the season and by a large margin once again wasn’t a great sign for the competitiveness of the sport.

While that’s unlikely to change next year unless one team can suddenly find a huge amount of pace, there are other tweaks that might happen in 2024.

Stefano Domenicali has admitted that the Sprint Race format is set to change and he’s excited for when he can announce the plans.

Currently, there are six race weekends that contain a Sprint Race on a Saturday afternoon.

It’s not the most popular change F1 have ever made but it has produced far more action than any practice session.

Domenicali teases Sprint Race changes for 2024

Asked what changes he foresees in the Sprint Race format, the F1 CEO said: “We will do something. But I cannot spoil anything that we are discussing!

“I think that what we’re going to do is to consider all the lessons learned from this year.

“I think that what we will see is something that you will appreciate and what is great is that all around the world the fans love this format.

“And we have the duty to consider also people and fans that are not really in love with the format and that will change because they’re getting smaller.”

Right now, qualifying takes place on a Friday afternoon for Sunday’s race, before a Saturday morning Sprint Shootout ahead of a Sprint Race that afternoon.

Previously, the Sprint Race result would decide the grid for the main race but that only encouraged people to drive within themselves to avoid crashing out and starting at the back for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Putting the race weekend in a more logical order seems the most obvious change.

Domenicali could move the Sprint Shoutout to Friday afternoon before a Sprint Race on Saturday morning, with the main qualifying session happening later in the day.

They could even do back-to-back qualifying sessions before back-to-back races so drivers aren’t concerned about a crash ruling them out of the race.

There’s even the suggestion of a reserve championship position start which would certainly be exciting.

Who knows what F1 has planned, but we’ve now got a whole winter to speculate on what they might do.