Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz believes Formula 1 should work to make changes to a Sprint weekend to “spice up” the current format.
In 2021, the Sprint format was introduced at three rounds, before returning for another three this year, including at last weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The format sees a shorter race held on Saturday to set the grid for Sunday’s grand prix, with the traditional qualifying format shifted to Friday.
In 2023, the sport may see more Sprint weekends as a recent F1 Commission meeting saw F1 and its teams showing support for extending the number of weekends to six across the year.
However, Sainz says that more can be done in order to “spice up” format, while suggesting that the weekend routine is currently too long for drivers, amid an increase in the number of races per year.
“It’s something that we are discussing with FOM and FIA to maybe spice up a bit the Sprint weekend,” Sainz said.
“I think there is good potential there, and obviously on a standard weekend, we are going towards more number of races.
“But for some reason that maybe we didn’t expect this year, both Thursday and Friday have become a lot longer for the drivers.
“The amount of media that we are facing every day, and the amount of time that we are spending at the track in meetings and activities has increased a lot, even as we are going towards a higher number of races.
“So, we are going to need to find a way to control this in a more efficient way, let’s say.”
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