Formula 1 abolished the sprint shootout before the 2024 season – at least the term. Because this term for the qualification before the sprint race has been deleted from the rule book for the new season. Instead, the session will now simply be called sprint qualifying.
However, this could lead to confusion, at least if you take a look at the recent history of Formula 1. There was already a session called sprint qualifying, but that was a completely different session.
Because that’s what the actual sprint was called in 2021, when the format was first introduced in the premier class. At that time, the result of the sprint, which at the time could not be called a race, formed the basis for the starting grid of the Grand Prix and replaced the actual qualification – hence the name sprint qualifying.
In 2024, sprint qualifying will now be qualifying for the sprint race, which, like last year, no longer has any impact on the starting grid. There is a separate qualification for the Grand Prix every weekend.
The changes were decided at the FIA World Motorsport Council meeting ahead of the first free practice session in Bahrain – as were formal changes to the schedule.
Formula 1: A total of six sprint events in 2024
Because it was revised for 2024 and no longer provides for the separation of the sprint events on Saturday. Instead, the regular qualifying for the Grand Prix will now remain at its usual location on Saturday afternoon, which it also has on normal weekends.
The qualification on Friday afternoon is now for the sprint race, which was previously called the Sprint Shootout. The sprint itself takes place on Saturday morning.
This is also accompanied by changes to the parc ferme regulations. Previously, the cars for the entire weekend had to be set up before the sprint shootout on Friday, but now the teams have the freedom to change the set-up again between the sprint and qualifying.
A total of six sprint events will take place in the 2024 Formula 1 season: in Shanghai (China), Miami (USA), Spielberg (Austria), Austin (USA), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Doha (Qatar).
By the way, the deletion of the term Shootout is not the only word change in the regulations. The FIA has replaced masculine terms in the Formula 2 and Formula 3 rulebooks with gender-neutral language.
Sophia Flörsch will be a female driver in Formula 3 in 2024. There are currently no women among the drivers in Formula 2, although there was one in the recent past with Tatiana Calderon.
Gender-neutral language does not yet exist across the board in the Formula 1 regulations; only a few passages have been adapted with minimal effort.