According to Mercedes, the new sprint weekend format will make it an “impossible” task for Formula 1 teams to get their normal long run data. Following approval by the Formula One Commission this week, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix will take place this weekend with a revised schedule.
Saturday’s race will be completely separate from the rest of the weekend, with a sprint shootout qualifying session in the morning and a short race in the afternoon. The change means that teams will have to forego the normal Saturday morning free practice session, where they traditionally collected their long run data, which will help them develop tire strategies for the race.
According to Andrew Shovlin, the senior Mercedes engineer at the track, the elimination of this extra hour of training will primarily affect race preparation: “If you only have the FT1 it’s practically impossible to use everything you learned on Friday and Saturday, summarized in one sitting,” he says.
Mercedes: Set-up errors are inevitable
“You lose the ability to focus on the long runs and you have to figure out what the real priorities are.”
Mercedes sporting director Ron Meadows reckons that one of the consequences of the new plan is that teams will have to forego much of what they normally do in training. He says: “It will be very difficult for the engineers and drivers to find the optimal set-up for both qualifying and the race.”
“We need to maximize the number of laps in FT1, so we probably won’t be planning any set-up changes that will cost the drivers time. It’s a new way of working for all teams and it’s a good opportunity to improve.”
Mercedes: Accident rate is likely to increase
As events become more concentrated, the risk of incidents will also increase. Meadows adds: “The new format will not result in any massive changes in how pit crews work over the weekend.”
“However, if you add sessions that require drivers to attack 100 percent and where every lap counts to get to the next phase, there is always a risk of an accident.”
Shovlin also thinks Saturday morning’s qualifying will be quite tricky given the fact that there is no pre-qualifying practice. And because drivers are only allowed to use one new set of tires in each of Saturday’s qualifying sessions, Shovlin doesn’t think it’s realistic to expect maximum performance in a single lap.
“The drivers will go straight into qualifying on Saturday, which is very unusual,” says Shovlin. “It’s a big challenge to expect the drivers to do a one-lap performance right away, so I suspect everyone will go for multi-lap runs.”
“You can do multiple laps on the medium tire but if you don’t have multiple sets you have a better chance of being unlucky with a red flag, for example. I think everyone will go out there and try to get the rounds together.”