Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen welcomes the changes to the sprint, but also emphasizes that he still doesn’t have much fun in these events.
“I think it’s a little more logical the way the format is structured,” says Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen about the new schedule of sprint weekends in the 2024 season and the associated changes for drivers and teams.
Background: This year, qualifying will be moved from Friday to Saturday and therefore behind the sprint shootout and the sprint itself, which means that the cars can be converted again after the sprint for qualifying and the race on Sunday.
So far, almost nothing has been changed to the cars on sprint weekends from Friday afternoon onwards due to the parc ferme rules. “I think it’s a little better,” explains Verstappen regarding the changes.
“Sometimes you get stuck [mit dem Set-up] and knows that the weekend is ruined and there is nothing that can be changed,” he reports with regard to the previous rules and says about the adjustments: “It will definitely help a little.”
In the same breath, the three-time champion also makes it clear that he won’t have any more fun in the future “if I win a sprint.” Because Verstappen has never made a secret of the fact that he is generally not a sprint fan.
Verstappen doesn’t want any “artificial excitement” in Formula 1
Last year, for example, he explained that he thought it was the wrong approach to try to improve the show in Formula 1 with things like sprint races. “The whole thing should be thrown in the bin,” he made it clear at the time.
His demand: “It’s important that we go back to what we had and that we make sure that every team can fight for victory. That’s what we should do, not try to introduce all this artificial excitement.”
He also criticized in the past that on a sprint weekend you should at least be able to “recognize your mistakes [beim Set-up] “To be corrected”. At least in this regard, improvements have now been made for 2024.