Formula 1 managing director, Ross Brawn, has renewed calls for six sprint races to be featured on future F1 calendars.
When Silverstone debuted the first ever F1 sprint race last season, teams and drivers alike were concerned about the financial expense and fan appeal.
2021 held two other sprint races and while there were mixed reviews, Formula 1 wanted to host double the amount of races in the 2022 season.
However, the teams could not agree on a fair way to manage it under the tight budget constraints, the teams wanting more money for more sprint events.
Formula 1 said no to increasing the budget cap and, as the timing of that meant they needed at least eight of the ten teams to agree to doubling the number, only three were scheduled for this year’s championship.
Brawn says after the latest sprint at Imola – deemed a success – he will now push for six races next season.
Riding onboard with both Leclerc and Verstappen for the race-winning overtake ?#ImolaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/qrJLKeFZGD
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 23, 2022
“On Tuesday we want to discuss increasing it to six,” said Brawn as per motorsportweek.com “We’d like to have six next year. I think they can see the success.
With the new regulations this season, overtaking has spiked and increased tensions, creating a fighting atmosphere on track.
The cars are able to follow closely behind one another which from many drivers’ perspectives is great fun and a throwback to their days in karting.
“We’re very pleased with the sprint race,” Brawn continued. “Great entertainment, lots of racing going on, plenty of overtaking, we demonstrated the cars could follows.
“What you should always remember about the sprint is it gives you a great Friday as well. We’ve had three days of action for the fans and we can’t ignore that.
“I know you may say ‘well it was DRS’ but you can’t use DRS unless you can get on the back of the car, so I think overall it was very successful.
“We didn’t quite know where we were last year with the old cars but I think they can see the way this is feeding into the new cars. I’m optimistic they’ll all see the value in it. Even the fans.”
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