F1 has confirmed there will be six short-format races during the 24-event 2024 season.
However, the sport is looking to tweak the concept following feedback from stakeholders throughout the 2023 championship.
The flow of the Sprint weekends was much criticised, with opening practice following qualifying for the grand prix on Friday.
Saturday was then set aside exclusively for the Sprint component, with the Shootout followed by the 100km race later in the day.
Criticisms were that, with parc ferme rules as they are, teams and drivers were locked into a set-up far earlier than usual, with only extremely limited changes permitted after qualifying (tyre pressures, front wing flap).
That significantly contributed to the disqualifications of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at the United States Grand Prix.
But while parc ferme and scheduling are up for discussion, the concept of a reverse grid, or even partial reverse grid, is also being considered.
Whether it has support is another matter, with Russell one of those against the concept.
“I won’t talk on behalf of the drivers, but my own personal view is I don’t think reverse grid races will work,” Russell said, echoing Toto Wolff’s opinion.
“I learned this when I raced in Formula 3 and Formula 2; if you’ve got the 10 fastest cars… the most challenging car to overtake is the one who you’re fighting with.
“If you reverse the grid, you’re going to have the quickest car in 10th trying to overtake the second quickest car in ninth, which is trying to overtake the third quickest car, which is in eighth, so each car is trying to overtake their direct competition.
“So what you’ll probably actually find is it’ll just be a DRS train, because you might have a Williams leading from a Haas, who can’t quite get past, who’s leading from an Alpine, who’s then leading from a McLaren or whatever.
“I think the concept won’t work.
“The best Sprint races so far have been when there’s either been tyre degradation, like was saw in Qatar and people on different strategies, and equally in Brazil, the tyres could only just make it to 25 laps, whatever it was, and it was a good race.
“But most of the time, the Sprint races, you put the medium tyre on and you’re just flat out to the end, and there’s no good racing.”
No decision has been made on the specific format of the F1 Sprints for 2024, though details are expected to be firmed up in January.
Discussion about this post