Brawn nervous about sprint race: "Have put a lot of work into it"

Next weekend will be an exciting one for Ross Brawn and F1. At Silverstone there will be driven a modified program for the first time. On Saturday there will be a sprint race instead of a normal qualifying session. The usual qualifying will be held on Friday. The third free practice will disappear.

The F1 boss himself doesn't quite know what to expect. This he tells to Channel 4. "I'm nervous, but that's normal. I think we've put a lot of work into organising sprint qualifying, so I think there's a good chance of success. We need to get the fans involved and make sure we have a race that really fascinates them. I think that will work, but we won't know until we get there."

Brawn keen to see sprint races succeed

Because that would mean it could be introduced permanently from next year. That's what the Brit is hoping for.

"The best thing that can happen is that sprint qualifying becomes part of a Grand Prix weekend. Maybe not every race, but we want to stress that we want to extend the weekend. Now Friday also has a big event: qualifying. With sprint qualifying on Saturday and the regular race on Sunday, we're really trying to add to that, to make sure we don't take anything away from the Grand Prix."

Next weekend we'll see what the modified schedule does for the entertainment of an F1 weekend and whether F1's plan has a chance of succeeding.