Lewis Hamilton has supported the potential introduction of reverse grid races into Formula 1, but Mercedes team-mate George Russell warns they “won’t work”.
Despite several tweaks since its foundation in 2021, the Sprint format has continued to divide opinion after a series of drab races that revealed the performance trends of the cars in advance of the grand prix encounter.
However, Hamilton has defended the revised configuration which appears at six rounds on the calendar, citing that it mixes things up from the conventional weekend schedule.
“Saturday is not the greatest of days, but I like the single practice session straight into qualifying,” Hamilton admitted.
“I think we can learn. I love that we do have a different format, rather than just the same three practice sessions and then the qualifying and the race.”
During the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend it was announced that the F1 Commission had granted its approval for further alterations to be submitted ahead of the next campaign.
That was supported by F1’s confirmation of the Sprint roster for 2024 this week, in which the sport stated that a final proposal will be submitted to the F1 Commission in January.
Among the more radical changes under discussion is to reverse part of the grid from Sprint qualifying, which had been suggested by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez last month.
Hamilton explains that his experience starting at the back in Brazil two years ago makes him open to that consideration, but outlines that the Sprints should be extended.
“The best Sprint race I ever had was when I started last and so I’m in favour of the reverse order, except if we had that then everyone will just try and qualify last,” the seven-time champion, who climbed from the back to fifth in Interlagos in 2021, remarked.
“But I think it maybe should be a little bit longer the Sprint race because it’s something like 19 laps or something.”
But Russell – who experienced reverse grid races in the junior categories, including his title-winning Formula 2 season – denies that the format would lead to improved racing.
“I won’t talk on behalf of the drivers, but my own personal view is that I don’t think reverse grid races will work,” Russell debated.
“Purely because I learned when I raced in Formula 2 and Formula 3, is that if you’ve got the 10 fastest cars, the most challenging car to overtake is the one who you are fighting with.
“If you reverse that grid, you are going to have the quickest car in 10th, trying to overtake the second quickest car in ninth, who is trying to overtake the third quickest car in eight, so each car is trying to overtake their most direct competitor.”
Expanding on his initial comments, Russell contends that ensuring slower cars end up in front of faster ones would result in drivers ending up caught up behind one another.
“What you’ll probably find is that it’ll just be a DRS train because you might have a Williams leading from a Haas who he can’t quite get past, who is leading from an Alpine who is leading from a McLaren or whoever,” he explained. “The concept won’t work.”
Russell has highlighted that recent Sprint events demonstrated that incorporating more strategic variety into the truncated affairs would encourage more overtaking.
“The best Sprint races have been when there is tyres degradation, like we saw in Qatar and people on different strategies,” the Briton pointed out.
“And equally in Brazil, the tyres could only just make it 25 laps, and it was a good race.”
Discussion about this post