Max Verstappen, who has never been one to mince words and shy away from saying what he thinks, provided another eye-opening comment at the recent Australian Grand Prix.
Amid a debate over sprint races, a concept that Verstappen has publicly been against since their arrival in 2021, the Dutchman suggested that he would be willing to walk away from the sport should further changes be implemented.
“Even if you change the format, I don’t find that is in the DNA of Formula 1 to do these kind of sprint races,” he said. “I hope there won’t be too many changes, otherwise I won’t be around for too long.”
There are now proposals that would see a further qualifying session added to a sprint weekend, which would split up the sprint and grand prix segments so neither impacts the other.
It’s a solution that makes more sense than the sprint race deciding the starting order for the grand prix, as it often sucks the excitement out of the main race if there’s an out-of-sorts grid.
But there is a huge risk that F1 will oversaturate the race weekend. Part of the joy of watching the traditional format is building up the excitement through the event, which then comes to a climax at the start of the grand prix, where all the preparation culminates.
Less practice is certainly something that should be explored. Too much data can make the sport too predictable and the added challenge will make for an increased engineering challenge, as well as a driving challenge.
Verstappen suggested that F1 should instead investigate a two-day weekend format on Saturday and Sunday to ensure there’s a piece of excitement each day. It also offers something of a fix regarding concerns over the expanding F1 calendar, which could see up to 25 events a year soon.
But there’s a caveat with that. F1 could not be expected to dish out tickets at the ever-increasing price tag they are currently sold at, given that the attending fans would have less time to view the cars trackside. In addition, there would likely be pushback from major sponsors, who will be looking for as much TV time as possible, and venues would fear missing out on revenue if there’s one less day of attending fans.
F1 is progressing down the route of extracting as much entertainment from a race weekend as possible, and there is not a hint of expectancy that it will change its mind and revert to the traditional format.
Once F1 settles on a race weekend format that produces as much day-to-day entertainment as possible, there will be no going back. The format that we are accustomed to currently will eventually be declared too boring and filled with worthless sessions, especially if F1 continues to pull in new fans that are encapsulated by the flurry of high-tension moments.
Like most things that have been controversially introduced in the past, it too will become accepted. In recent years there was major distaste to the V6 turbo-hybrid engines, the Halo, to name a few. But once something in F1 is consistently visible, it simply becomes the norm.
Verstappen’s threat to quit F1 may bear more weight than some might think. After securing his maiden championship in 2021, he declared that anything he wins afterward would be a bonus that only adds to the career checkmark that he set out to achieve.
In 2022 he won his second title, and he is currently the heavy favourite to take a third title in 2023. With his love of racing running deep into his roots, there would be little surprise to see him take on another challenge in sportscars or elsewhere.
F1 would move on without Verstappen, but it speaks volumes that the current star of the grid is so publicly against the changes that the sport is making. In years to come, it may not be an issue when a new generation of racers are so accustomed to whatever weekend format is in use.
But sooner or later, F1 needs to settle on the format it wants. All the year-to-year changes are simply leaving everyone in a state of confusion with uncertainty over what the end product will be. A decision needs to be made soon regarding what the future of F1 will look like.
And it seems right now, it will look quite different to the present.
