© Vladimir RysF1 Sprint ExplainedFormula One is trying something new this weekend. If you don’t understand what’s going on, we’re here to help!
On13May1950,theWorldChampionshiperaofFormulaOnebeganwiththeBritishGrandPrixrighthereatSilverstone.GiventhatracetookplaceonaSaturdayafternoon,itwouldbereasonabletoassumeF1hasneverbeenafraidoftryingsomethingnew.
This weekend’s something new is the sprint qualifying race, titled F1 Sprint. Rather than the grid for Sunday’s race being decided according to pace over a timed lap, we’ll have a grid decided by the finishing order in a short race. Though that short race will have a grid decided by a normal qualifying session. Confused? Read on…
Max Sends It On Softs© Vladimir Rys
We’ve got a rather different look to the weekend, which has been repackaged to accommodate F1 Sprint – but also time-shifted to ensure the maximum number of people from F1’s biggest markets are able to watch without playing hooky from work.
Friday’s programme has Free Practice 1 running from 1430 – 1530 BST, followed by the standard 2h30m break. After the break, rather than FP2, we have an hour of qualifying between 1800-1900 BST. This is the standard three-part qualifying session of the type F1 has been using (mostly) for the last 15 seasons. It will be used to determine the grid for Saturday afternoon’s F1 sprint qualifying race session.
Before that, however, we have FP2, taking place between 1200-1300 BST on Saturday (in the slot usually allocated to FP3). After this, we have a rather longer lunchbreak than usual (it’s even possible people might have time to actually eat lunch – though don’t bank on it) with F1 Sprint set for 1630-1700 BST. It’s down on the schedule as 17 laps or 30 minutes – which is approximately how long it should take to cover the 100km, one-third full race distance, that will determine the grid order for Sunday’s British Grand Prix – which begins at 1500 BST.
Much of this weekend involves doing normal race weekend things in a different order. Parc Fermé is one of those. As usual, Parc Fermé conditions will be imposed the first time the car leaves the garage in Q1 – which, in the context of this weekend, means shortly after 18:00 on Friday evening. After this, the mechanical configuration of the car is fixed: no changes to any set-up parameters; no fitting different bodywork etc.
There are a few tweaks to the parc fermé regulations with a little more leeway on things like replacing brakes, or fitting older-spec bodywork without penalty (if you biff all of your latest-generation front wings in sprint quali, you can fit an older model for the race without having to start from the pit lane) – but, in essence, your set-up work is wrapped up before the sun goes down on Friday – so what’s the point of having another practice session on Saturday?
It’s definitely relevant – though perhaps in different ways to that which would usually be the case. The race engineers won’t be experimenting with ride-height or trying different cooling configurations during the session – but it’s still very useful, and for some people perhaps more useful.
Without mechanical set-up tests to perform, the Team can concentrate on other areas of performance that may otherwise get short shrift. There will, for instance, be a lot of interest in race preparation – of both the sprint and grand prix flavours. The Team can study tyre degradation (always a biggie at Silverstone) at various fuel loads, they can do launch practice (from the pit box and on the grid at the end of the session – no pit lane launches at Silverstone), and the drivers can work on honing their performance. On a normal weekend, a large chunk of FP3 would be given over to making set-up changes in the garage, and doing qualifying lap simulation runs. There won’t be any of that.
While everyone is rightly looking at the new sprint qualifying race format as the big change this weekend, it is perhaps of secondary importance to the changes of the tyre regulations required to accommodate the format. Globally, we have one set fewer this weekend and within that allocation, the split between the compounds has changed. We also have a very different regime for using those tyres and – just to confuse everyone a little further – we also have a brand-new rear tyre construction making its race debut. If you think of tyres as homogenous black rubber circles, this next bit really isn’t for you…
At the top of the list, we have 12 sets of slicks this weekend rather than the usual 13. It shouldn’t be any great loss. Working on the basis that the sprint qualifying race effectively replaces FP3, and assuming there aren’t pit stops, then the programme will naturally lose one run.
There is a standard tyre allocation at the moment. Pirelli brought it in as an emergency measure for the ad hoc 2020 calendar and assumed they would go back to a system of allowing teams to choose their own combination of compounds for 2021 – but the teams were happy to stick with the set menu, which so far in 2021 has been two sets of hard, three sets of medium and eight sets of soft. This weekend we have two sets of hard, four sets of medium and six sets of soft – which under normal circumstances would change how the Team organised its sessions – but there are a raft of rules in place that take a lot of that decision-making out of the Team’s hands.
After FP1, one set of tyres has to be deleted from the allocation, rather than the usual two. In the qualifying session on Friday evening, only the soft tyres can be used, which removes the usual temptation to get out of Q2 on a medium (or hard, in Max’s case, here last year in the 70th Anniversary race). That is less of a factor this weekend, as the drivers are free to start both the sprint and the qualifying race on whichever tyre they choose. After qualifying, the Team has to hand back two more sets of tyres. Another set of tyres is returned after FP2 – though rather than the Team being able to choose which tyres to hand back it has to be the one that did the most mileage. This is also true for the sprint qualifying race – though again, assuming no pit stops, that’s largely moot.
After this, the Team will be left with the standard allocation of seven sets of tyres for the race and, as is the case for any grand prix, there’s still the requirement to have at least one hard tyre and one medium tyre left in the allocation, and a requirement to run two different compounds during the race.
There’s plenty of intrigue around this, though as much to do with the new tyre rules as the qualifying format itself. Logically (not that this is always the guiding principle) FP1 will be given over to qualifying preparation – but do you burn through soft tyres in that session or keep your powder dry for the session itself? Will you attempt to get through quali sessions on one run and save fresh sets of soft tyres for the race? Which tyre would you like to use for sprint qualifying? Do you take the extra grip at the start and hope to gain places off the line with a soft tyre, or will you want one of the harder compounds for better pace at the end of the race? And just how hard are you prepared to push in that qualifying sprint. How do you balance the advantage of gaining a place on the grid versus the potential to spin out and start at the back? There’s plenty to decide and it isn’t necessarily straightforward.
Passing The Pit Wall© Getty Images
That’s more one for you to answer! Opinions vary. F1 has been tweaking its qualifying format since the dawn of the World Championship, with formats ranging from aggregate times across several days to a one-lap shootout. There have been formats in which your speed in qualifying mattered less than the size of your trophy cabinet, and ones so confusing teams decided to turn up on the grid for the race whether they qualified or not. So, there’s nothing new in trying something different – that’s very much in keeping with the DNA of the sport.
In many respects, Silverstone is perhaps an unfortunate place to begin this experiment. A 100km race is a good length for a stint on a single tyre here – but drivers will have to look after it: this certainly isn’t going to be a flat-out blast from lights to flag, but rather a carefully managed stint of the sort you would see in any other race.
On the other hand, it’s something new, and with anything new, there’s always great potential for different approaches before standard practices are established. We’re also restricted to less practice overall and much less practice before qualifying, which creates much greater potential for teams to get it wrong and mix-up the order. That’s quite exciting – though in the garage the phrase that will more likely be used is ‘tense’.
Fans Back In Austria© Vladimir Rys
