Verstappen on new sprint format: 'Not going to change much for me'

Red Bull Racing has not taken any major updates with it towards Azerbaijan. So says Max Verstappen to Sky Sports ahead of the GP weekend. Furthermore, the two-time world champion states that he does not expect the new sprint weekend format to bring too big a change for the drivers.

No major updates RB19

"The paint [of the livery] will be the same! I think naturally every weekend there are little things you put on the car. You make changes to the car, that's no different here. We change little bits on the car to try and improve the performance here," Verstappen said for Sky Sports' camera .

For fans, the new sprint format should be a substantial improvement, for Verstappen it's not going to make much of a difference. "I think once you are at the front, it's like eight, seven or six points. It's not making a massive difference and the risk involved of potentially having a shunt. I don't see it being a lot different to what it was in the previous sprint weekends. A little bit more chaos because of the extra qualifying. This track is chaotic anyway, so this will only make it more chaotic. From my side, I don't think it will change a lot. "

Verstappen doesn't want too many races

Finally, Verstappen claims to love racing, but he thinks it is getting very crowded this way. "I understand selling more tickets on Friday and Saturday, but when you do 24 or 25 race weekends, I think a good option would be to shorten the weekend [...]. And then you add in sprint weekends, it makes it more busy."