De Vries indifferent on sprint weekend: 'No opinion, I just want to race'

In the weekend of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a new sprint race format was introduced for the first time. The weekend, in which there was only one free practice for the drivers and a double qualifying session, was viewed with caution. Nyck de Vries, George Russell and Fernando Alonso, among others, explained to GPblog how they experienced the weekend.

De Vries' weekend was by no means anything to write home about. The AlphaTauri driver saw his time in both qualifying for the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix itself come to an early end due to a crash. Nevertheless, De Vries is not critical of the new format.

"I think the sport always evolves and you know we are in it together to optimise and find ways of making it more exciting or to continue to keep it exciting. Honestly I don’t have a strong opinion. It's not really up to me, I am happy to race but what is clear in all categories before Formula 1 you have less free practice than we have here. I think we can find a balance there, and maybe invest more time in the actual race."

Alonso and Russell argue for small changes

Alonso and Russell, on the other hand, still definitely see room for improvement. Alonso in particular thinks the format needs some tweaking. "Qualifying on Saturday felt a bit strange to me," explained the Aston Martin driver. "Maybe I need to see it from the outside or watch it on TV. But from a driver's point of view, qualifying on Saturday morning just feels like a repeat of qualifying on Friday night. So maybe some work needs to be done there."

Russell also thinks the way the weekend is arranged needs to be looked at again. "It's a bit of a shame for all the engineers who work so hard but you're locked in after practice," Russell explained. "It would be nice to give them a chance to do a bit more work after Friday night or Saturday night. I hope it doesn't take away from the race on Sunday, I think the sprint races,  there's no action, I know a set of mediums is easy to make it to the end. I'm not against the format, but it maybe need some fine-tuning."