F1 reveals six sprint races for 2023 including Spa and Baku
Azerbaijan - Baku City Circuit (April 30)
Austria - Red Bull Ring (July 2)
Belgium - Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (July 30)
Qatar - Losail International Circuit (October 8 )
USA - Circuit of The Americas (October 22)
Brazil - Interlagos (November 5)
“We have seen a hugely positive reaction to the F1 Sprint events during the first two years of its running, and we can’t wait to bring even more action to fans with six events next year, including our first US F1 Sprint in Austin,” said F1 CEO and president Stefano Domenicali.
“The introduction of the F1 Sprint has created a race weekend that includes three days of competitive racing action and brings more entertainment to fans of the sport as well as additional value for key stakeholders including teams, broadcasters, partners, and host venues.”
The format will remain unchanged in 2023,
awarding points to the top eight and the result setting the final starting grid for the grand prix.
It has not stopped some criticism of the sprints from drivers, including world champion Max Verstappen, who felt most were unwilling to take risks for fear of dropping down the order and ruining their starting position for the Sunday race.
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Also Parc Fermé will stay, so after FP1 nothing can be change.
So FP2 on Saturday will be worthless and uninteresting to look at.
They had promised to change the format, because the drivers and the fans were very critical, especially about
the Parc Fermé rules and the starting grid is determined by the sprint race, but again Domenicali and Brawn are saying
it's a GREAT weekend and a huge succes!
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Teams receive more money for Sprints
RacingNews365.com understands from sources on the F1 Commission that, from the 2023 campaign, teams will be able
to deduct $400,000 USD from every Sprint race as costs.
This means across the six that are currently planned, a total of $2.4 million can be deducted by each squad towards running their cars in the extra events.
It follows on from teams making demands before the 2022 season had started for extra financial wriggle room in the cost cap era and the increased likelihood of cars sustaining damage in the Sprint events.
In a bid to "simplify" the Sprint regulations, it is intended to remove all other wording from the rulebook about such expenditure,
and have it reading as teams being able to make the proposed $400k deduction per event.
All the rules that come with it, about proving damage and the control of the panel that deals with the budget cap, will be deleted.
In this way, the workload for the FIA will be reduced, the motorsport association hopes.
The proposed changes will not come into force until they have officially been approved by the World Motor Sport Council -
which is sitting today (Wednesday, 7th December).
