Karun Chandhok suggests sprint race to improve F1 spectacle

Former F1 driver Karun Chandhok has suggested F1 implement a Saturday sprint race to make the weekend more interesting, saying he would make "several changes" if he was in charge. There have been suggestions of sprint races or reverse grids in recent months and years, but nothing has ever happened with the idea.

The current Formula 2 weekend sees a sprint race on Sunday, with the top eight from Saturday's feature race reversed on the grid. Fewer points are available and Chandhok believes something like this would make for interesting viewing in F1.

He said at the 2020 Autosport International: "If it was up to me I’d make several changes. I’d have one friday Free Practice session with every team having to run a young driver and then an afternoon session for the regular drivers.

“I’d move qualifying to the Saturday morning but keep the format as it is – it works really well and that would set the grid for the race on the Sunday but I’d have a sprint race with half points and the top 10 reversed to form the grid.

“To make sure teams would still want to compete, you’d need to give them half points at only half the length of a normal GP. Say for example a normal race lasts 90 minutes, make the sprint one 45 but still make sure to offer points as that keeps everyone interested and forces everyone to be part of it.”