Reminder: need to know about the sprint format

This weekend sees teams and drivers head to the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix. Round 9 of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship will not only kick off the last leg of races ahead of the summer break, but will also include the revised sprint format. F1Technical's Balázs Szabó picks out the most critical facts regarding the sprint weekend schedule.

The sprint race was introduced in 2021 with the special format first making appearance at three venues. 2022 saw three venues host the 100-km dash event on Saturday with the 2023 season set to stage six sprint weekends.

Baku was the first venue to feature the sprint format with Austria (Red Bull Ring), Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps), Qatar (Lusail Circuit), the United States (Circuit of The Americas) and Sao Paulo (Interlagos) the other F1 Sprint venues for 2023.

However, the sprint race format has been heavily updated for this year in order to optimize the weekend schedule.

The main reason for the change was that the Saturday practice session had been subject to harsh criticism as drivers and team had not been allowed to make any tweaks to their cars following the Friday qualifying session. Another critical point was the fact that he schedule had forced drivers to race carefully in the sprint race as a dismal result would have negatively affected their starting position for the grand prix.

As a result of it, the sport introduced tweaks to the sprint weekend with the outcome of the sprint no longer have any bearing on the grid for Sunday’s grand prix.

Fridays now includes an FP1 session and standard qualifying session to set the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix, while Saturdays includes the 100km race with an additional, preceding qualifying session called the ‘Sprint Shootout’.

The shootout is a shorter session than traditional qualifying, with SQ1 running for 12 minutes, SQ2 for 10 minutes and SQ3 for eight minutes. New tyres are mandatory for each phase, with mediums for SQ1 and SQ2, and softs for SQ3.

The revised sprint format sports the same points system as last season with eight handed out to the winner, seven to second place, six to third and so on down to one in eighth – both drivers and teams will log points in their respective championships.

The way penalties are handed out have also been revised. A grid penalty incurred in P1 or Qualifying applies to the Race while a grid penalty incurred in the Shootout applied to the Sprint. However, a grid penalty incurred in the Sprint has to be served in the race.

A breach of parc fermé results in a pitlane start for the Sprint and Race. Any penalties regarding the power unit only apply to the Race (unless they are also a parc fermé breach).