McLaren is still waiting for the big turnaround even after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Although the team did manage to capture two points in the main race thanks to Lance Norris, it remains a paltry number for a team with higher ambitions. In the sprint race a day earlier, Norris and colleague Oscar Piastri remained scoreless.

This was undoubtedly partly due to a choice the team made for Lando Norris. The Englishman did not take part in Q3 of the sprint shootout because he no longer had a new set of soft tyres. Without such a set, you are not allowed to take part in the final part of the shootout. However, it was a conscious decision to use that set during qualifying for the main race. McLaren preferred to be higher on the grid during the main race, as there were the most points to be distributed therein.

Inflation looms

Andrea Stella, McLaren's team boss, told GPblog and others, that the sprint format is fine in principle. But he does issue a warning: "I think this kind of format is fine, it keeps you busy from a team operation point-of-view. I don't think it needs to happen too often, because it may just inflate. Like we want to feel like there is a race today, and there is a race at times, not a race every day, I think it may destruct the overall business."

Stella does think that the regulations regarding the use of tyres in the sprint shootout should change. "I think what you say is a plus [playing around with the tyres instead of having mandatory ones could help squeeze up the grid for the Grand Prix], like the mayor plus of the solving some loopholes so for me it is a no brainer. I am sure this is under consideration by the FIA and F1 because they acknowledge that there's a couple of things to resolve in the current format."