Toto Wolff questions if F1 tweak Carlos Sainz champions is ‘best for the sport’

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff questions if Formula 1 adopting reverse grid races to improve the Sprint as Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has proposed is ‘best for the sport’.

The Sao Paulo GP in November hosts the last Sprint weekend of the 2023 season. Formula 1 scheduled a record six Sprint weekends in 2023 with Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, Qatar, the United States and Brazil. But the format still creates questions on how to improve the Sprint.

Formula 1 did introduce some changes to the Sprint format for the 2023 season. Unlike over the series’ first two seasons with a Sprint on a Saturday, the grid is set via a Shootout earlier in the day. The qualifying session on a Friday previously set the Sprint and Grand Prix grids.

Carlos Sainz believes Formula 1 drivers want reverse grid Sprint races

But questions linger over whether or not Formula 1 can further improve the Sprint format in future seasons. The 100km limit for the race has tended to act as a preview for the first stint of the relevant Grand Prix. It proves which drivers may make progress and manage the tyres.

Another issue with the current Sprint format is that it locks the teams into a set-up after one practice session. Martin Brundle considers it to be ‘too much of a lottery’, after Aston Martin and Haas started their four cars from the pit lane at the United States GP to change set-ups.

According to Ferrari driver Sainz, some of the Formula 1 grid have even petitioned the series to reverse the championship order to set the grid for the Sprint. Sainz outlined in September how it would be more exciting if the fastest cars come through the field than act as a spoiler.

Sainz shared on P1 with Matt and Tommy: “Just imagine, let’s say, Max [Verstappen] starting last [and] the Ferraris starting 13th or 14th. The whole grid would be closer to each other…

“There’s a few drivers who have asked for it. We’ve said, ‘If you really want a Sprint, we can make it interesting and make the Sprint race something different. Why don’t we try this?’”

Toto Wolff questions if reverse grid Sprint races would be ‘the best for the sport’

But while Sainz and some Formula 1 drivers want reverse championship order grids for the Sprint, Mercedes boss Wolff has questioned if the tweak would actually be the ‘best for the sport’. He fears doing so would move F1 too near the formulas used across the junior series.

“I’m conservative in racing,” Wolff said, via quotes by RaceFans. “I’d rather have no Sprint races. Then if we start to meddle even more and do more reverse grid races, we’re going more to a format of junior formulas.

“Sport follows entertainment, whilst entertainment should follow sport. The honesty about the stopwatch is what attracts us.

“Creating artificial gaming around the Sprint race on a Saturday is not the way that I would favour personally. But that’s my opinion. At the end, all teams together with Stefano [Domenicali, the CEO of Formula 1], we just need to think is it the best for the sport?”

Formula 2 and Formula 3 currently employ a multi-race format across their weekends on the F1 package. Both series have one practice session and one qualifying session before a Sprint and a Feature Race. The Sprint flips the top 10 drivers from qualifying in F2 and top 12 in F3.