Steiner uncertain about sprint weekend set-up: 'I don't know yet'

In Miami, Formula 1 reverts back to its 'normal' set-up of the weekend. Two free practice sessions on Friday, one free practice and qualifying on Saturday and, of course, the Grand Prix on Sunday. How different it was in Baku last weekend. Max Verstappen already made it known he was not in favour of sprint races. Guenther Steiner, team boss of Haas F1, has now expressed doubts about the newly introduced format.

Overall, Steiner rates the event in Azerbaijan with a wide enough rating, but he is not yet fully convinced. "It was the first one and there was a lot going on during the race weekend, and we still need to get our heads around it", he said in a press release from his team. "For example, if we do Qualifying for the Grand Prix on Friday, do we disconnect between the race on Sunday and what happens in between on Saturday?"

He continued: "I don’t know the verdict yet [whether this was the right order]. FOM will speak to the fans to see what they have got to say and see if you need to switch it around, but overall I’m very happy with what happened. It’s quite intense for the teams and drivers but that’s what it should be like, in my opinion. I questioned Free Practice on Saturday, but it’s not boring anymore with Qualifying – it’s the complete opposite – and that’s what we want."

There are five more sprint races this season, so another set-up of the F1 weekend. The next sprint race takes place on 1 July, in Austria, so there is still plenty of time to make any improvements.