How to decide success of sprint qualifying?

[CMSMJ1]

I suggested elsewhere...
Friday: P1 (2hrs) + Q (for race)
Saturday: Q (sprint) + Sprint
Sunday: Grand Prix

Separate the sprint championship off from the main championship and give old school F1 points to 8th and also only count 6/7 out of 9 race results for the sprint championship, which would allow teams to field either a rookie or guest at sprints without costing themselves in the championship, e.g. in Mexico Pato O'Ward could drive for McLaren, at US GP Herta could get a run out...etc or they could sell a seat for the harder up teams.

Quali for sprint is one shot to get the occasional topsy turvy grid, e.g. rain or driving mistake. Restrict DRS either by time or distance, maybe even as a sliding scale based on qualifying position.

I fully agree with your sentiments and would like to sign up for your newsletter

[El Scorchio]

I suggested elsewhere...
Friday: P1 (2hrs) + Q (for race)
Saturday: Q (sprint) + Sprint
Sunday: Grand Prix

Separate the sprint championship off from the main championship and give old school F1 points to 8th and also only count 6/7 out of 9 race results for the sprint championship, which would allow teams to field either a rookie or guest at sprints without costing themselves in the championship, e.g. in Mexico Pato O'Ward could drive for McLaren, at US GP Herta could get a run out...etc or they could sell a seat for the harder up teams.

Quali for sprint is one shot to get the occasional topsy turvy grid, e.g. rain or driving mistake. Restrict DRS either by time or distance, maybe even as a sliding scale based on qualifying position.

I fully agree with your sentiments and would like to sign up for your newsletter

The problem with that is, to be brutally frank, no-one would bother watching the sprint championship with a load of rookie or guest drivers and literally nothing meaningful hanging on the results. (Honestly who is going to care about the sprint championship compared to the actual world championship?) Sure a few diehards would, like some on this board who watch F2 etc, but 90% of the viewing population in general just won't care and won't tune in which will completely defeat the objective of the sprint races in the first place, which was to grow TV viewing figures and hike up Saturday ticket prices.

After three weekends of it, I'd 100% scrap it. It's enhanced basically nothing and devalued qualifying at the same time. One potential selling point was having cars out of order for a 'more exciting' Sunday. Well Hamilton shot that one down by scything through 3/4 of the field in 24 laps on Saturday, (which I didn't even feel compelled to watch) and the rest of it in all three races was basically a procession. We've seen that risk really doesn't appear to equal reward and 90% of the field are perfectly happy to just hold station and not lose what they've got.

Sadly it'll stay because it makes FOM more money. That's the sole reason it's happening in the first place.

[CMSMJ1]

I don't disagree that ideally, it would be scrapped.

It is crap

[Just_a_fan]

Sadly it'll stay because it makes FOM more money. That's the sole reason it's happening in the first place.

Add in Brawn saying the feedback is positive. He admits that it's not "real fans" that want it, just other types. Presumably, once they get bored and move on to watching something else, Brawn et al will come up with a different "exciting new thing!!". He'll have to because by then there will be almost no one watching it.

[adrianjordan]

I suggested elsewhere...
Friday: P1 (2hrs) + Q (for race)
Saturday: Q (sprint) + Sprint
Sunday: Grand Prix

Separate the sprint championship off from the main championship and give old school F1 points to 8th and also only count 6/7 out of 9 race results for the sprint championship, which would allow teams to field either a rookie or guest at sprints without costing themselves in the championship, e.g. in Mexico Pato O'Ward could drive for McLaren, at US GP Herta could get a run out...etc or they could sell a seat for the harder up teams.

Quali for sprint is one shot to get the occasional topsy turvy grid, e.g. rain or driving mistake. Restrict DRS either by time or distance, maybe even as a sliding scale based on qualifying position.

I kind of like this idea, probably best I've seen so far.

[El Scorchio]

Sadly it'll stay because it makes FOM more money. That's the sole reason it's happening in the first place.

Add in Brawn saying the feedback is positive. He admits that it's not "real fans" that want it, just other types. Presumably, once they get bored and move on to watching something else, Brawn et al will come up with a different "exciting new thing!!". He'll have to because by then there will be almost no one watching it.

Exactly- which I understand, because their goal is to increase reach of the product and attract/convert more casual viewers, but I don't see how this accomplishes that, as I find it highly unlikely the sprint race format as it stands is the key to hooking and unlocking new potential viewers, especially as it remains behind a paywall anyway due to their existing agreements with broadcasters and affiliates. If you're picking and choosing what you're going to watch, it's the race. That's the can't miss session where all the real action and consequences happen.

If they swung a deal to get all the sprints on FTA television globally, then I could see some sense in it as a strategy to drive people toward the full races on pay TV, but their broadcast partners who fund the sport will probably never agree to that, unless there's proof that it drives new subscriber numbers and increases their revenue.