Sprints have been a fixture in F1 since 2021, with the 2023 season that includes six dash occasions.
Whereas the format has added extra aggressive operating, it hasn’t absolutely delivered on its flat-out motion promise, with an entertaining dash in Qatar adopted by dour parade in Austin.
F1 chiefs at the moment are radical format tweaks to make sprints extra thrilling, with reverse grids, million dollar bonuses and even a separate sprint championship among the many concepts which were floated.
However no potential dash idea seems to in a position to persuade Crimson Bull’s Verstappen of its worth, with the triple world champion one of many fiercest opponents of the format.
Having received three of the 5 dash occasions held up to now this yr, he revealed these victories did not imply a lot to him apart from the additional factors he gained.
“There isn’t any satisfaction to win a dash for me,” Verstappen mentioned when requested by Autosport if dash format modifications would sway his opinion. “You cross the road and say: ‘All proper, properly, tomorrow is the race, the principle one’. That is the way it goes.
“I all the time say why do we have to attempt to invent one thing? I believe our product works, for those who simply make it possible for the vehicles are aggressive and they’re going to keep the identical for a very long time.
Picture by: Crimson Bull Content material Pool
Max Verstappen, Crimson Bull Racing, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
“In soccer, they do not change the principles or one other sports activities, it has been like that for 100 years. Why can we abruptly must give you different issues to attempt to make it entertaining?
“I believe when you’ve got a very good race in your palms with vehicles being shut to one another, then you do not want a dash format or weekend.”
The present dash format caught groups out in Austin, the place Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were disqualified for excessive floor plank wear.
Automobiles had been put beneath parc ferme situations after Friday’s single apply session, which meant groups may now not revise their journey heights to account for any put on. The exclusion got here out of the blue for Leclerc, who claimed there had been “zero wear” on his Ferrari on Friday night.
“I believe we must always simply do away with the dash weekend after which everybody can simply arrange their vehicles usually, as a result of it would not have occurred on a standard race weekend,” Verstappen added.
“These items solely occur when you could have a dash weekend the place all the things is so rushed in between FP1 and qualifying and also you suppose: ‘Hmm, we could be okay’.
“As soon as you’re within the unsuitable, there’s nothing you are able to do, the one factor you are able to do is bump up the tyre pressures, however then you definitely’re driving round on balloon tyres.”