Sprint Qualifying shows F1 has more to offer

It has been 19 years since Michael Schumacher and Ferrari dominated the 2002 Formula 1 season to win the drivers’ championship at the two-thirds mark at Magny-Cours.

His victory sealed the title at race number 11 of 17, leaving a record six races to go. Unsurprisingly viewing figures for those races plummeted.

With awkward conversations with sponsors and TV companies looming for F1’s then-showman Bernie Ecclestone, changes to the format were made

Bernie, being Bernie, suggested weighing down the dominant Ferraris but the result was a new points system, which gave more points to the runners-up, making a win less valuable.

Also modified was Formula 1’s session when more excitement and unpredictability is demanded: qualifying.

In 2002, drivers had up to 12 laps in an hour-long session to set the pole time which, unsurprisingly led to long periods of cars waiting in their garages for the latest possible run when the track was in best condition.

One-lap qualifying was brought in for 2003, promising constant track action, drivers under pressure and drama throughout the race weekend. Sound familiar?

It didn’t quite work that way. Drivers had a single flying lap on a clear track on Friday, which would set the running order for the following day, with the slowest starting first. That Saturday lap would be your qualifying time.

Of course, the track generally got faster as the session went on, which usually meant that the quickest drivers from Friday just extended the gap over the rest.

The major exception was when it rained for part of the session; a scenario that proved too unpredictable for even F1’s tastes, particularly when Jos Verstappen ended up topping the tables on Friday in France.

The following year, Michael Schumacher deliberately (and ingeniously) spun during Friday qualifying at Silverstone, in an effort to run early on Saturday to avoid the forecast rain. The writing was on the wall for the format. And so began the qualification changes that continue to this day.

If you’ve endured aggregate qualifying and the sheer misery of the short-lived elimination qualifying then there was every reason to be sceptical about sprint qualifying.

But now the first race has taken place, we can say that it has at least cleared the low bar set by the elimination format, which saw cars removed from the session by the clock, one by one, and which even the series’ brainbox race engineers struggled to get their head around.

But the potential is there for sprint qualifying to be much more; not just to improve on what we already have, but to make F1 closer and more competitive.

One reason is that the change is fully thought through and considered, with F1 running thousands of simulations before introducing it to Silverstone.

Unlike the 2017 plans to make the cars faster for… well, there wasn’t really a logical reason, F1 has become much better at thinking through changes before they are made. Limiting wind tunnel R&D time; the budget cap; and this year’s aero restrictions are already helping to prevent one team running away with the title as Ferrari did, followed by Red Bull and then Mercedes.

The new 2022 regulations should take that a step further.

Now with sprint qualifying offering greater jeopardy, things are starting to click in the way they hadn’t in 2003 and 2004 when Ferrari still took both titles. With more refinement and some further tweaking, F1 might have a genuinely positive addition on its hands.

The new format allowed other drivers to shine. Fernando Alonso put on a clinical display at the start to rise from 11th to fifth on the opening lap while Charles Leclerc previewed his strong race pace as he never let Valtteri Bottas out of his sights.

It also allowed Max Verstappen to get the jump on Hamilton, who’d lined up in first as the so-called ‘Speed King’ after Friday qualifying.

Despite his best efforts, Hamilton then spent the next 16 laps cooped up behind the Red Bull unable to break through the bubble of dirty air – a problem pinpointed with the design of the 2022 cars which are aimed at solving.

His struggle demonstrated the importance of track position in the grand prix and dictated the action and drama that occurred the following day.

So, the following afternoon when the duo went into combat once again for the lead of the race. Cue the explosive collision at Copse and the title battle was ignited something fierce heading into the final race before the summer break.

Formula 1 has spent a great deal of time and effort to implement a shake-up to the weekend format. Extensive research, AI learning and simulation has been used to develop possible alternatives to the standard format as well as the designing of cars that are aiming to enhance wheel-to-wheel racing.