F1 WDC Contenders Sprint Race

[Sofa King]

Seeing the fantastic champions podium of Verstappen, Alonso and Hamilton this weekend begs the question of why F1 doesn't have an All Star Race. We all keep asking which race car driver is best in any given year, but it is tough to know when they drive different cars. Football has the World Cup, the NBA has the All Star Game, why not a F1 WDC Contenders Sprint Race?

Here's my proposal, but the real goal here is to improve the concept with feedback from all the F1 nerds on here and get thoroughly roasted along the way.

-Rearrange the schedule of last race before the summer break, to accommodate a F1 WDC Contenders Sprint Race Day on Sunday after the Grand Prix on Saturday. FP1 and qualifying for the Grand Prix occurs on Friday similar to the new Sprint format.
-There should be 12 races already completed heading into the weekend, the top 5 drivers in the WDC standings after the 12th race are invited to the F1 WDC Contenders Sprint Race
-The top constructor after the 11th race has their car used in the F1 WDC Contenders Sprint Race and development needs to be frozen until after the summer break shutdown. I have no idea how long it would take to create 4-5 extra cars, but that should give them 3 weeks to build the new cars so 6-7 cars are available for the F1 WDC Contenders Sprint Race. All expenses paid by F1, none of this counts against the cost cap, any damage from the race is paid for by F1 and excluded from the cost cap. All of the staff, crew from the constructor selected receive bonuses from F1 for their extra work.
-On F1 WDC Contenders Sprint Race Day, using the pool of 6-7 cars from the top constructor, each of the 5 drivers get one 30 minute practice session. All the cars have the same exact spec and same exact tires, with no tire warmers. Only the the top WDC's mechanics are available to make any repairs.
-After a short break, a 12 min Q3 session takes pace, again all same spec/setup and tire, but unlike typical Q3 there are no tire changes and all cars have the same fuel load. The top four times set up the grid for the sprint and the 5th place racer is knocked out.
-Later in the day, a 100k sprint race occurs. The four best drivers in F1 racing against each other in the same exact car with the same tire. Wouldn't that be great to see! Perhaps points are awarded similar to a sprint race as well.

Some immediate considerations come to mind. Weather? Perhaps some flexibility gets built into the schedule on the F1 WDC Contenders Sprint Race Day so at least there doesn't need to be a change from slick to wet tires or vice versa during any session. Mechanics/pit crew? I think it needs to be from the same team as the top constructors car used to avoid giving away any secrets and for practical reasons, but there will be two crews for 4-5 cars. I try to mitigate that impact by eliminating any setup, fueling or tire changes and maybe have two extra cars on hand in case there are any crashes, but realize it may be very hard to quickly adapt a cockpit from Ocon to Tsunoda, for example.

Finally, the one, or most likely two drivers, from the top WDC car used will have a clear advantage since they will have driven that car for at least half a season. I'm not sure how to get around that except to have the top two constructors participate and switch up cars, but that will make the logistics of the day much more complicated. However, these are the best drivers in the world and they should enjoy the challenge. Perhaps they all use a spec car made specifically for the event to eliminate sharing proprietary info, but I think we all want to see them in the current best car and the mechanics will need to be familiar with the car.

Please let me know how this concept can be improved and I look forward to the roasting!

[PlatinumZealot]

Hmm. Hate to say it but, there are no WDC contenders this year. The chasing pack is actually tightly nit, then there is massive gulf to the ineveitable world champion. Might as well keep an all comers sprint.

Even with such a sprint it will be difficult to say the cars are "equal" for all drivers because each one has his preference on balance. If the spec car has characteristics biased to a particular driver, then he will have an advantage. Drivers need days of running or even a few races to get their cars to fit them as much as they can. So giving every driver an RB19 is tantamount to giving them Max Verstappen's suit to wear. It won't fit on first try, while Max will hit the ground running laughing away into the sunset.

Let's not even mention the other team's race engineers who have to get familiar with a new car. The only way it will work is with using RedBull race engineers and even then they wont be familiar with the "enemy" drivers. Ah. And there is another thing. Even if development is banned after that race, the drivers sure will steal ideas from that RB19 to take for the next year's cars in their respective teams!