F1 announces six 2025 Sprint venues

A quarter of next season will comprise of the short-form races, though only two in the first half of the championship.

The Chinese Grand Prix, the second round of the 2025 season after it opens in Australia, will again host a Sprint event as it did this year.

The Sprint format will remain unchanged, at least for the moment, with a truncated qualifying on Friday afternoon setting the grid for the 100km race on Saturday.

Teams are then free to work on their cars again ahead of the now traditional three-part qualifying format while the grand prix itself remains sacrosanct on the Sunday.

Following China, Miami will host the second Sprint event before a lengthy gap to the third in Belgium.

The Spa-Francorchamps venue hosted a Sprint in 2023 but will miss out this season before returning in 2025.

The final three Sprints come in five races at the very end of the season; the United States, Sao Paulo, and Qatar Grands Prix – the latter saw Oscar Piastri score his first F1 win last season in the Sprint.

“The Sprint has been a great success for Formula 1, bringing all our fans more action and racing on the track,” said F1 boss Stefano Domenicali.

“We are seeing the proof of this in our audience data, fan attendance on Fridays and from the promoters and partners.

“As we prepare to celebrate our 75th anniversary in 2025 we will always honour our incredible history, but we must always be looking ahead, innovating, and improving to deliver the best for our growing and diverse fanbase.

“The Sprint is a great example of bringing new elements to our sport in a way that is respectful of the Championship, and I want to thank the six venues that will host the Sprint in 2025 and look forward to those incredible events throughout the season.”

FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, added: “As the FIA Formula One World Championship celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2025, the Sprint will also enter its fifth year as part of the competition.

“Over that time, and through our strong collaboration with Formula 1 and with the input of all the teams, it has been through several different iterations and the regulations and format have evolved to give us the exciting and popular Sprints we have today.

“The six events for 2025 once again take in an interesting range of circuits and are sure to provide fans with plenty of additional action across the season.”

Though traditional fans remain divided, F1 claims engagement on the Friday of a Sprint event spikes in comparison to the standard format.

It cites live audience increases of 40 percent across its top 15 markets for Sprint Qualifying and the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix over the average of the opening two events.

Further to that, it claims viewership of Sprint Qualifying in Austria was up 76 percent versus Free Practice 2 sessions at the last two European events.

“This follows a successful 2023 season that saw new Sprint locations increasing overall viewership, with Azerbaijan and Belgium among the best performing weekends, seeing increases of 15 percent and 22 percent respectively.”

2025 Formula 1 Calendar