Critical review of sprint race format: 'That was a really boring session'

The weekend at Silverstone was not only about the incident between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, but also about experimenting with a new set-up for the race weekend for the first time. The main goal is to create spectacle every day.

In F1 Cafe ZiggoSport Giedo van der Garde and Robert Doornbos look back on the sprint race weekend in England. Van der Garde was satisfied with what he saw and sees a future in the format.

"I thought the sprint race was really cool. You know what's nice is that you just go straight into free practice and qualifying. And there you also saw that some drivers were right there. Russell, Max, Hamilton. But you also saw guys like Perez, who need the time to get close to Max, he wasn't there at all."

Doornbos sees useless session

Doornbos was also happy with the entertainment, but like Verstappen and Hamilton also saw an area for improvement. It concerns the second free practice, which is not at all interesting for the fans now and also does not fit logically in the format.

"I thought it was a great success. I think Ross Brawn can be satisfied. It's debatable what they want with the second free practice. After the first free practice your car has to be in parce ferme and then you have qualification. Then, during the second free practice, you have to find a good setup for the race on Sunday. That was a bit of a boring session as well."

There will be two more tests with the new format this season. After that the decision will be made for next year.