Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen clashed on Formula 1 during the United States Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen will start Sunday’s United States Grand Prix in Austin from third row after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took pole ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Max Verstappen believes Formula 1’s split sprint format will take some of the tension out of the weekend.
Verstappen won Saturday’s sprint race ahead of Sunday’s United States Grand Prix in Austin.
Introduced in 2021, this format sees drivers compete in short races the day before the main event to earn extra championship points.
Like many F1 fans, Verstappen is not a fan of sprint racing.
But Lewis Hamilton described it as “fun”.
The seven-time world champion believes the sprint format could be improved, but also appreciates the added competitiveness and enjoyment.
Verstappen, who won this year’s Qatar sprint race, voiced his opinion on the issue on Saturday.
“I really like it.
I really like it.” she said sarcastically.
“If you want my honest opinion on the sprint weekend, I don’t really care.”
Most F1 race weekends consist of practice on Friday, qualifying on Saturday and racing on Sunday.
The sprint weekend consists of practice and qualifying on Friday, sprint shooting (sprint qualifying) and sprints on Saturday and racing on Sunday.
Verstappen spoke at the team’s press conference.
He continued: “After finishing the preliminaries (on Friday), I feel a bit empty. I think you just need one weekend of qualifying to put it all on the line and feel really good.
“You also put it on P1 this morning… It’s Saturday and there aren’t many points for the race anyway.
Also, as we’ve had this race now, everyone knows what’s going to happen tomorrow between all the pace cars.
“So the excitement goes away. If you qualify yesterday and not today, you don’t know what will happen before the race.
That’s why everyone gets excited and turns on the TV without realizing it. And we didn’t know either.
I think I know a little bit now.”
World champion Hamilton joked: “I’m not bored but the fans will be disappointed because they know they’re going to take pictures but nothing happens.” You know what will happen tomorrow.
“So you wake up on Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon, turn on the TV and qualify, but you’re not sure which car is the fastest.
In most cases, it takes years.
I think that takes the magic out of it.”
“It’s fun for me,” Hamilton said. I like to have the extra opportunity to go out and try to get a little bit more out of the package that we have.
“Couldn’t it be better?
Of course. I personally really like sprint weekends because people find them fun.
“I especially like Fridays when we only practice once and then go straight to preliminaries.”
