Interlagos showed just how good F1 sprint races can be

F1

The F1 sprint has had its critics, but Interlagos was a showcase for how much entertainment it really can serve up

Lewis Hamilton passes Max Verstappen in the 2022 Brazilian GP sprint

Hamilton sizes up Verstappen in sprint

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Formula 1’s sprint race format, introduced in 2021, has drawn much comment from fans and drivers alike – most of it negative, but the São Paolo GP’s thrilling offering at the weekend might just be the event which starts a sea change in opinion.

One of the few supporters has been Lewis Hamilton, and Fernando Alonso commented early on “I hope we can keep this format,” whilst purists like Max Verstappen and Kevin Magnussen haven’t been so sure.

In fact, Verstappen has readily admitted he’s not a great fan. Okay, he likes the idea of just one practice session to nail the set-up before qualifying, but the sprint itself leaves him luke warm. He thinks you don’t ‘fully go for it’ because the risk versus reward balance is out of kilter. With just 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 points on offer for the first eight finishers, a risky overtake might net you an extra point, but if it goes wrong, you’re at the back of the grid for the main race, when the serious points are dished out.

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Magnussen leads Verstappen at São Paulo sprint

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The sprint, he thinks, is also too short to offer any real strategic variation because there’s no pit stop involved although, ironically, in Brazil Max himself started on the medium Pirelli while all around him were on softs. That though, was to save a set of softs for the main race.

Magnussen agreed, even the Dane conceding that he takes less risks in a sprint and that if you’re not in one of the fastest four cars and points are unlikely, there’s even less reason to risk binning your car with a rash move. It would be better, he thinks, if Friday qualifying dictated the grid for both the sprint and the main race, and the sprint was a stand-alone event, maybe slightly longer to facilitate some strategy, with more points on offer.

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I should qualify that he said this before he’d taken the first Scandinavian pole position in F1 since Ronnie Peterson at Österreichring in 1978! Proving his point, he didn’t try any heroics racing faster Mercedes, Red Bulls or Ferraris, prioritising minimum loss of race time in pursuit of what he viewed as a realistic target – a single point. Which is exactly what he got. Or, as Sky’s Ted Kravitz so wittily put it, “In the words of his namesake, Magnus, that’s one point and seven passes for Kevin.” With apologies if you don’t date as far back as Magnus Magnussen and Mastermind

Interlagos, actually, was the poorest example of Verstappen’s reservations since the sprint began, giving us the most entertaining version yet, with multiple overtakes throughout the field. But that was down to a mixed-up grid due to the variable conditions of qualifying, allied to the track layout itself.

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Mercedes took a 1-3 on Interlagos Saturday

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The long, curving drag up the hill from Juncão corner, across the start-finish line and into the Senna Esses, then down the following straight into Turn 4, guarantees action. Even if a driver manages to defend into Turn 1, he’s often slower on exit, and vulnerable. Add in DRS and it’s enough to allow Lewis Hamilton to start the sprint race at the back and end up winning the main race, as he did in 2021.

George Russell and Verstappen crossed swords in a three-lap duel, before the Dutchman then struggled to hang  on as his tyres faded and others lying in wait took advantage, whilst midfield skimrishes such as those between the Aston Martin pair topped up the entertainment.

Talking to Mark Webber last weekend, he brought up something I’d never heard mentioned before. The curving nature of the uphill drag to the start/finish line and the trajectory of the cars, Mark says, produces a broader, more powerful tow. Significant enough for him to have had more than one conversation with the late Charlie Whiting about why it’s not factored in more when new circuit layouts are considered.

And then there was Alonso. Sprint or no sprint, Fernando is not a man who seems ever to grasp the concept of not fully going for it. It will not have helped that through a series of mechanical mishaps he still finds himself behind team-mate Esteban Ocon in the championship. Assuredly he will not want to finish there and the gap is now just five points. Sod McLaren and fourth place in the constructors’ championship! “Our drivers let us down today,” team principal Otmar Szafnauer said on Saturday after they’d come together – twice. And he had a point, even if he can now relax a bit more with a 19-point margin going into the finale after McLaren’s stinker of a Sunday.

Though the Spaniard ended up 17th on the Saturday, it served as the perfect backdrop to his storming drive through the field on Sunday, the raging bull clearly riled up by the previous days events.

The sprint format is clearly far from perfect, and with six events on offer next year, the championship is still trying and testing where is best to hold them.

As Interlagos showed though, run it at the right track, and you can electrify the weekend and then some.

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