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Representatives from F1 and the 10 teams have discussed the F1 Sprint format at a meeting of the Sporting Advisory Committee.
Employed on six occasions in 2023, the Sprint format was designed as a way to add further interest to a race weekend.
This season has seen qualifying for the grand prix pushed to Friday, leaving Saturday entirely devoted to the short-form encounter.
However, that has created issues with the flow of the weekend a common complaint within the paddock.
There is also the added complication of having just 60 minutes of practice before the car set-up is effectively locked away for the weekend.
“There’s been discussions about how to improve how we go about the Sprint event,” said Tom McCullough, performance director for Aston Martin.
“The Sprint event was brought in for a reason, you know, the fans.
“From a technical point of view, it’s a headache. The car goes into parc fermé after one practice session and it is difficult.
“But from a commercial side and from a fan side, I think there are elements that are exciting.
“It needs tweaking,” he continued.
“It’s been tweaked already [but] I think it needs tweaking a bit more because even my Dad, who’s quite an understander and follower of Formula 1, sometimes says to me, ‘so just remind me, is it qualifying on Friday for the main race?’
“I just think if somebody at that level is having questions, the fans are going to get confused.
“Our job is to put a simpler, better, more understandable format, still have the excitement of two races, I think.”
Since its inception, F1 has stated that it is trialling the Sprint concept and is open to making refinements.
That has seen a different qualifying format employed, awarding more points, with the finishing order no longer defining the grid for the grand prix.
Further tweaks look certain for 2024 with the latest suggestion that the Sprint Shootout will move to Friday, while the F1 Sprint itself becomes the first session of the day on Saturday, followed by qualifying.
There has been no shortage of other suggestions too, with Sergio Perez calling for the 100km encounter to employ a reverse grid, while other corners have floated the notion of a standalone Sprint championship.
“The Sprint weekend has a lot of merits because there’s many competitive sessions, you get as more interesting you can generate,” said Diego Ioverno, sporting director at Ferrari.
“It’s possible to improve probably, everybody is having a thought. We discussed in the Sporting Committee.
“There is still not a definitive proposal but our target will be once that FIA and F1 have decided the format, teams will have to work together to make it good for the spectators, good for us because it’s quite tricky.
“If you move the Sprint race on Saturday morning, then you have to make sure that you allow enough gap to teams to react for qualifying in case of problems and stuff like that.
“There are also other options on the table,” he added.
“We will work together because at the end this is our target now, to make it as good as possible for our fans.”
