Formula 1 premiered in 2021 the new weekend format with sprint classification, 100 km races that are held on Saturdays and that awarded points to the top three finishers, in addition to preparing the grid for Sunday’s race .
These tests were successful and the series decided to increase the number of events to be held in sprint format to six in 2022. The first Bahrain Grand Prix of the season will be the first event to host a sprint qualifying, possibly using the circuit configuration. exterior that was already used in 2020.
In discussions about future sprint qualifying races, there was also talk of changes to the number of positions receiving points, whether or not pole position should be awarded or whether or not the grid should be altered for Sunday’s race.
Although the teams supported the expansion of the sprint format for this year, they were unable to reach an agreement regarding the income derived from accidents on these special weekends.
F1 introduced a budget cap of $145m (just over €125m) last year, a cost cap which will drop to $140m (€122.5m) this season before slashing another $5m ( €4.3 million) in 2023.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown was strongly encouraged by the fact that sprint races had “a very positive impact on audiences” and that while the conditions of the format needed to be discussed, he was strongly opposed to a increase in the cost limit.
“Some teams want to take the opportunity to raise the budget cap. But we ‘re not adamantly opposed to raising the cost cap in any way. So we’re going to have to work on that issue.”
In 2021, the teams received compensation of almost €400,000 for participating in the three sprint races, plus an additional almost €100,000 for damages incurred in accidents during these sessions.
However, Brown said “a couple of teams” are trying to figure out how to raise the budget cap “by a ridiculous number” for 2022 despite the few incidents seen in testing last year.
“The reality is there was very little damage last year,” Brown said. “When they proposed this to us a year ago, they did a report on it and it already showed that there was a lot of damage.”
“And yet a couple of teams still want to take the opportunity to increase the budget cap by a ridiculous number. From what we’ve seen, I saw more accidents in practice than in sprint races.”
“It may be new to some teams to have to work on a budget, but I think that’s in the spirit of the sport, I really think we can match revenue with expenses and figure this out.”
“I also think revenue will grow over time, we need to focus on being fiscally sustainable. And even if certain teams take the opportunity to try to increase that budget all the time, we have to try to resist that.”
