After experimenting with three grands prix last year to generally good reception, F1 owners Liberty Media had planned to hold sprint qualifying races on up to six weekends in 2022.
The venues chosen were the first round of the year, the Bahrain GP , and then Imola, Canada, Austria, the Netherlands and Brazil .
However, in the negotiations on the format of the sprint race, a problem arose, because the best teams did not agree on the amount of money they had to receive to play more races.
F1 had offered an extra compensation package for each sprint weekend that involved a direct injection of €443,000 for the first five events, and then a further €132,000 for each subsequent sprint race.
For the original plan of six sprint races, that meant an extra €2.35m for each team.
However, unlike in 2021, there would be no additional allowance in the car damage cost cap, as it became clear last year that this was not really necessary.
While most teams were happy with Liberty’s offer, F1’s big boys were against the proposal and wanted the cost cap raised to cover all expenses from weekends to sprint.
Motorsport.com has learned that one team has even pushed for the cost cap to be raised to €4.43m, drawing criticism from McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown .
Brown said, “One team in particular wanted a $4.3 million budget cap increase, which was just ridiculous and had no reason to be.”
The idea of increasing the cost limit does not have support in the rest of the F1 teams, which has left the negotiations on hold, which are now a dead end because for a rule change like this the support of eight teams is needed .
Ahead of the F1 Commission meeting on February 14, Liberty has submitted another offer, a package that will reduce the idea of having six sprint races to a maximum of three.
Motorsport.com has learned that Liberty, the FIA and most teams will not support any proposal for the spending cap to be removed, meaning the fate of sprint racing now hinges on finding a deal next week. .
While F1 remains hopeful that in the long term there will be up to six sprint weekends, it accepts that with teams struggling to understand the new 2022 cars, something in between such as doing just three would be good for all parties.
But, without the support of Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari, there is a possibility that F1 may have to abandon the idea of sprint racing altogether.
No decision has yet been made on where the three sprint qualifying weekends would take place if the plan is given the green light.
According to documents distributed to teams last year, F1 estimated that doing six sprint races in 2022 would boost the sport’s revenue by around $10 million (€8.8) thanks to commercial and broadcast opportunities, which would be shared with the teams.
