Formula 1’s drivers were split on opinion with the second Sprint weekend of the 2024 Formula 1 season playing out at this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix straight after the first in Shanghai.
Round 5 of the 2024 campaign in China saw the debut of a revised Sprint format, whereby FP1 was followed by Sprint Qualifying on Friday afternoon.
Saturday then began with the Sprint race, before Parc Fermé was opened up ahead of GP Qualifying in the afternoon with the race coming as ever on Sunday.
The second Sprint of the year will take place at the Miami International Autodrome and the likes of Valtteri Bottas, Oscar Piastri and Sergio Perez gave their verdict on the new format during Thursday’s Press Conference.
“I probably preferred the old format myself, because there was only one practice and the qualifying straight after was for the main race,” said Bottas.
“There was a bit more at stake. And as well as with the set-up, you wouldn’t have the second chance to adjust it. So I liked that a bit before what we had last year.”
Piastri meanwhile argued that the opening up of parc ferme was a positive with the new format, saying that it “was a good thing for the drivers and the engineers.
“I’m not sure the mechanics appreciated it that much, but I think to repeat some of the stuff that happened last year, you know, with like, Lewis [Hamilton] and Charles [Leclerc] getting disqualified [at Austin], we don’t want to see people getting disqualified because they set their ride heights a bit wrong and they can’t change.”
However, Piastri noted whilst this was a positive step, the mentality of going into race mode with Saturday morning’s Sprint and then back into quali mode later on was a “little bit weird.”
Miami home hopeful Logan Sargeant chimed in saying he’d “prefer 24 normal weekends,” which Perez more than likely would concur with, given his concerns regarding his mechanics.
“Opening the Parc Fermé I think puts a lot of workload on the mechanics and I think it’s something that we really have to look at it,” the Mexican said.
“It’s 24 weekends a season and with these Sprint races I think it’s a lot of load on our mechanics.”
When asked by Motorsport Week whether there were any positives or negatives to be drawn by having two Sprints in succession within the calendar, the Red Bull driver doubled down on his comments about staff fatigue.
“With the current format as it is, I’ve seen some of my boys and it’s definitely a lot of workload to be able to change the car right after the Sprint event, before qualifying, it just puts a lot of workload,” he said.
“I would really like that we will be able to review the format because so we are looking after our people in our sport.”
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