What to expect from the third sprint weekend in 2023?

With the third Sprint of the season taking place this weekend, teams and drivers will need to maximize every single on-track action to get the best out of their cars. F1Technical’s senior writer Balázs Szabó picks out the key things to remember ahead of the sprint race format.

This weekend will see drivers fine-tune their cars in just one free practice session before qualifying, and then Sprint Saturday’s two competitive sessions.

It means all teams will need to make that choice in terms of aerodynamic set-up within just the one hour of track running. However, things look to be even more complicated this time out with the weather set to be changeable over the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.

The chance for moderate rain is 80 per cent for both Friday and Sunday while heavy thunderstorms are expected for Saturday. It could mean that drivers will start the qualifying session without completing a single lap on dry track. It would lock drivers in the setup configuration teams have come up with through their simulations.

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 teams had not been allowed to make any tweaks to their cars following the Friday qualifying session. Another critical point was the fact that the 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).