2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix - Baku, April 28 - 30

[Schippke]

Why do you guys care about the engineers having an nice clear runway for setting up the car? I don't feel sorry for them they will figure it out. That whole challenge of who has done the best job of setting up in limited time will be great to see.

For me, it’s just an artificial way to (try to) mix up the grid by compromising everything into 1 hour. It makes the next practice session a waste of time and resources, aside from what… checking tyre wear?

If they did or something like:

Friday: FP1/FP2 as normal. Parc Ferme applies once the car leaves the pits for qualifying.
Saturday: Qualifying/Sprint
Sunday: Race

… then I’d somewhat be more understanding… I’d even go as far as to accept that at most race weekends (give a few exceptions) But the way it is now is disjointed and silly. That aside, you can tell it’s also been used to generate more income for Friday.

[mclaren111]

Very little time this weekend to get the setup of the car right. There is no opportunity to test the tires during the long runs.
After an hour immediately Parc Fermé and so nothing can be changed on a car. This will be a worthless weekend for several cars.
And for what? Because Domenicali claims that all fans would love to see a Sprint Saturday. Totally unbelievable.
Most fans want to see a GP weekend with a build up to qualifying on Saturday and the GP on Sunday.

Amen... Liberty & Dominicali Need to Go !!!!

[chrisc90]

Very little time this weekend to get the setup of the car right. There is no opportunity to test the tires during the long runs.
After an hour immediately Parc Fermé and so nothing can be changed on a car. This will be a worthless weekend for several cars.
And for what? Because Domenicali claims that all fans would love to see a Sprint Saturday. Totally unbelievable.
Most fans want to see a GP weekend with a build up to qualifying on Saturday and the GP on Sunday.

Amen... Liberty & Dominicali Need to Go !!!!

Totally agree with both. The way they changing stuff isn’t for the best at all.

[SiLo]

At least I've gotten really good at ignoring social media and messaging apps during grand prix weekends, guess I'll have to do it Saturday AND Sunday now for these types of races.

[TimW]

Very little time this weekend to get the setup of the car right. There is no opportunity to test the tires during the long runs.
After an hour immediately Parc Fermé and so nothing can be changed on a car. This will be a worthless weekend for several cars.
And for what? Because Domenicali claims that all fans would love to see a Sprint Saturday. Totally unbelievable.
Most fans want to see a GP weekend with a build up to qualifying on Saturday and the GP on Sunday.

Amen... Liberty & Dominicali Need to Go !!!!

Totally agree with both. The way they changing stuff isn’t for the best at all.

For me, more races in the end will mean that I loose interest.

The same happened with football. There are so many european matches that the importance of individual matches diminished, and I did not keep track of standings etc. anymore. And in the end if you do not know what is at stake in a match anymore (objectively seen of course nothing ), it is not interesting. Therefore I lost interest completely.

The same is happening with F1. There are so many races that I am not willing anymore to watch all of them. I will not dedicate 5+ hours in a weekend to watch F1, and certainly not 3 consecutive weekends. But only watching half of the races will make things less interesting, because those races matter less. And in the end the fun is gone.

But Liberty is not interested in viewer enjoyment, just in total viewership numbers. So thing will continue to develop this way.

[ali623]

Amen... Liberty & Dominicali Need to Go !!!!

Totally agree with both. The way they changing stuff isn’t for the best at all.

For me, more races in the end will mean that I loose interest.

The same happened with football. There are so many european matches that the importance of individual matches diminished, and I did not keep track of standings etc. anymore. And in the end if you do not know what is at stake in a match anymore (objectively seen of course nothing ), it is not interesting. Therefore I lost interest completely.

The same is happening with F1. There are so many races that I am not willing anymore to watch all of them. I will not dedicate 5+ hours in a weekend to watch F1, and certainly not 3 consecutive weekends. But only watching half of the races will make things less interesting, because those races matter less. And in the end the fun is gone.

But Liberty is not interested in viewer enjoyment, just in total viewership numbers. So thing will continue to develop this way.

It's about content generation as well, with the amount of videos they now post on Youtube, Twitter content, F1 podcasts etc. having one Grand Prix race every couple of weeks won't cut it, there's only so many time you can produce a video or discuss the one or two interesting things that happened during the race.

But cram in more race weekends, with multiple qualifying sessions and races over the weekend, then you're more likely to have more stuff to produce content off the back of, therefore more viewer engagement and more money in Liberty's pocket. It's only going to get worse unfortunately.

[Big Tea]

Amen... Liberty & Dominicali Need to Go !!!!

Totally agree with both. The way they changing stuff isn’t for the best at all.

For me, more races in the end will mean that I loose interest.

The same happened with football. There are so many european matches that the importance of individual matches diminished, and I did not keep track of standings etc. anymore. And in the end if you do not know what is at stake in a match anymore (objectively seen of course nothing ), it is not interesting. Therefore I lost interest completely.

The same is happening with F1. There are so many races that I am not willing anymore to watch all of them. I will not dedicate 5+ hours in a weekend to watch F1, and certainly not 3 consecutive weekends. But only watching half of the races will make things less interesting, because those races matter less. And in the end the fun is gone.

But Liberty is not interested in viewer enjoyment, just in total viewership numbers. So thing will continue to develop this way.

The next step will be, just to maintain interest, a return to the old system where only your best 18 races can be counted. Should make it a closer call every time

[SiLo]

Totally agree with both. The way they changing stuff isn’t for the best at all.

For me, more races in the end will mean that I loose interest.

The same happened with football. There are so many european matches that the importance of individual matches diminished, and I did not keep track of standings etc. anymore. And in the end if you do not know what is at stake in a match anymore (objectively seen of course nothing ), it is not interesting. Therefore I lost interest completely.

The same is happening with F1. There are so many races that I am not willing anymore to watch all of them. I will not dedicate 5+ hours in a weekend to watch F1, and certainly not 3 consecutive weekends. But only watching half of the races will make things less interesting, because those races matter less. And in the end the fun is gone.

But Liberty is not interested in viewer enjoyment, just in total viewership numbers. So thing will continue to develop this way.

The next step will be, just to maintain interest, a return to the old system where only your best 18 races can be counted. Should make it a closer call every time

I would actually support this for the drivers championship, but not the constructors. That way the constructors accounts for engineering reliability as well.

[Big Tea]

For me, more races in the end will mean that I loose interest.

The same happened with football. There are so many european matches that the importance of individual matches diminished, and I did not keep track of standings etc. anymore. And in the end if you do not know what is at stake in a match anymore (objectively seen of course nothing ), it is not interesting. Therefore I lost interest completely.

The same is happening with F1. There are so many races that I am not willing anymore to watch all of them. I will not dedicate 5+ hours in a weekend to watch F1, and certainly not 3 consecutive weekends. But only watching half of the races will make things less interesting, because those races matter less. And in the end the fun is gone.

But Liberty is not interested in viewer enjoyment, just in total viewership numbers. So thing will continue to develop this way.

The next step will be, just to maintain interest, a return to the old system where only your best 18 races can be counted. Should make it a closer call every time

I would actually support this for the drivers championship, but not the constructors. That way the constructors accounts for engineering reliability as well.

Maybe 30 races per year and each driver does 15? sort of driving by shift work.

[AR3-GP]

For me, more races in the end will mean that I loose interest.

The same happened with football. There are so many european matches that the importance of individual matches diminished, and I did not keep track of standings etc. anymore. And in the end if you do not know what is at stake in a match anymore (objectively seen of course nothing ), it is not interesting. Therefore I lost interest completely.

The same is happening with F1. There are so many races that I am not willing anymore to watch all of them. I will not dedicate 5+ hours in a weekend to watch F1, and certainly not 3 consecutive weekends. But only watching half of the races will make things less interesting, because those races matter less. And in the end the fun is gone.

But Liberty is not interested in viewer enjoyment, just in total viewership numbers. So thing will continue to develop this way.

The next step will be, just to maintain interest, a return to the old system where only your best 18 races can be counted. Should make it a closer call every time

I would actually support this for the drivers championship, but not the constructors. That way the constructors accounts for engineering reliability as well.

This would just make a big headache for spectators to know what the championship standings are.

[PlatinumZealot]

The new format is

FP1 >> Sprint... Points awarded
FP2 >> Qualifying...
Race..

It's basically best of both worlds! How can you not like that?

I mean not for all tracks, but this is good for a few tracks each year. Mayb three or four times.

Baku
Silverstone
Monza
Brazil

[V12-POWER]

Totally agree with both. The way they changing stuff isn’t for the best at all.

For me, more races in the end will mean that I loose interest.

The same happened with football. There are so many european matches that the importance of individual matches diminished, and I did not keep track of standings etc. anymore. And in the end if you do not know what is at stake in a match anymore (objectively seen of course nothing ), it is not interesting. Therefore I lost interest completely.

The same is happening with F1. There are so many races that I am not willing anymore to watch all of them. I will not dedicate 5+ hours in a weekend to watch F1, and certainly not 3 consecutive weekends. But only watching half of the races will make things less interesting, because those races matter less. And in the end the fun is gone.

But Liberty is not interested in viewer enjoyment, just in total viewership numbers. So thing will continue to develop this way.

It's about content generation as well, with the amount of videos they now post on Youtube, Twitter content, F1 podcasts etc. having one Grand Prix race every couple of weeks won't cut it, there's only so many time you can produce a video or discuss the one or two interesting things that happened during the race.

But cram in more race weekends, with multiple qualifying sessions and races over the weekend, then you're more likely to have more stuff to produce content off the back of, therefore more viewer engagement and more money in Liberty's pocket. It's only going to get worse unfortunately.

or they could always make a short Historic championship with 5 or 6 race weekends and reduce the size of the actual F1 calendar, these kind of events in which older cars race are getting more popular by year so would make a good impact, you get content which all people will like and also reduce the F1 calendar. to me 18 races is the max amount you can have before it loses the appeal

[zibby43]

The new format is

FP1 >> Sprint... Points awarded
FP2 >> Qualifying...
Race..

It's basically best of both worlds! How can you not like that?

I mean not for all tracks, but this is good for a few tracks each year. Mayb three or four times.

Baku
Silverstone
Monza
Brazil

I don’t think that’s the new format. I don’t know if you’re aware, but the teams are about to implement a new sprint format on Tuesday.

I think it’s FP1, GP quali on Friday.

Sprint quali and sprint race Saturday.

Race Sunday per Friday grid.

[LM10]

It's basically best of both worlds! How can you not like that?

Sprint races actually make me lose interest in the actual race on Sunday. The reason is that the sprint race already shows you the race pace of the cars and since you can’t change anything on the cars you already know exactly what’s going to happen on Sunday with the only difference being the length of the race.

[SirBastianVettel]

It's basically best of both worlds! How can you not like that?

Sprint races actually make me lose interest in the actual race on Sunday. The reason is that the sprint race already shows you the race pace of the cars and since you can’t change anything on the cars you already know exactly what’s going to happen on Sunday with the only difference being the length of the race.

I feel exactly the same way, but I do watch them (for now). And as long as people watch them they will keep adding more and calling it a success.