Wolff: 'We should not write off the sprint format at this stage'

The Baku Grand Prix weekend saw the first test of the new sprint format. After both a boring sprint race and a boring main race, there has been a lot of criticism of the new format. However, Toto Wolff does not think you should write off the new format based on this one weekend, he told GPblog and others.

"I think after a race weekend like this, we must not talk it down overall and say, that is the wrong direction, we need to change completely. It is more about understanding why was it not so entertaining, or why wasn't it entertaining, and revisit it."

After the race weekend in Baku, Mercedes are still third in the Constructors' Championship. While George Russell still finished fourth in the sprint race, he had to push forward from 11th on the grid after a poor qualifying session. This eventually resulted in eighth place, putting the Brit sixth in the championship. Lewis Hamilton had a consistent weekend, finishing seventh in the sprint race and then sixth in the main race. This keeps him fourth in the championship.

Is one free practice enough?

Throughout the race weekend, teams had only one free practice session to tune the setups of their cars. After qualifying, the parc-fermé rules went into effect, making it important to have a good setup, as drivers who wanted to change their setup after the start of qualifying have to start from the pit lane according to FIA rules.

Toto Wolff sees that his team struggled with having only one free practice: "The setup we used was very far away from the optimal setup. At the moment we realised it was too late, the car went into a Parc ferme." The next sprint weekend will be in Austria on 1 July. Then we will race with this format again.