Formula One executives have formally sanctioned a complete restructuring of the game’s weekend occasion, set to take impact beginning with the upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The six dash rounds of the 2023 season – the primary of which takes place in Baku this weekend – will see the introduction of a second qualifying session after the revamp gained help from the grid’s 10 groups on Tuesday.
Under the adjustments, a brand new standalone qualifying session on Saturday morning will now decide the beginning order for the dash race that afternoon, with qualifying on Friday setting the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
The extra qualifying session on Saturday shall be known as the “Sprint Shootout” and is shorter than the same old format. The three classes will final for 12, 10 and eight minutes, with the intention of the concluding quickest working so as to add better jeopardy.
Qualifying for the Grand Prix stays the identical, with Sunday’s important occasion untouched.
The adjustments will apply to the 5 different dash rounds in Austria, Belgium, Qatar, Austin and Brazil this yr, whereas a daily Grand Prix weekend will stay as it’s.
An announcement from F1 learn: “The F1 fee voted unanimously in favor of adjustments to the dash format. These will now come into impact on the first dash occasion of the season.
“Following this successful vote and subsequent approval by the World Motor Sport Council, all stakeholders believe this will boost the spectacle of sprint weekends and enhance track action for fans worldwide.”
The dash format, a one-third distance from a typical Grand Prix, was launched at three rounds in 2021 and doubled to 6 this yr.
World champion Max Verstappen has been important of F1’s plans to broaden the dash calendar – saying on the final spherical in Australia that he “won’t be around for too long” if there are “too many changes.”
But F1 bosses are eager to enchantment to the game’s new technology of followers and say the adjustments will present three days of competitors somewhat than two whereas decreasing three hours of largely meaningless follow to only one hour.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
