F1 considers sprint race qualifying shake-up

Formula One bosses are considering ditching Saturday’s traditional qualifying session and replacing it with a sprint race to decide the grid.

New owners Liberty delivered a blueprint for the sport’s future on Friday in Bahrain, a package that included budget caps, revised revenue distribution and plans for new sporting and technical regulations.

Ross Brawn, the former Benetton and Ferrari technical director and eponymous owner of Brawn, who is the new F1 management team’s managing director of motorsport, said a Saturday race was one idea for adding excitement to the weekend.

“What we’ve done is invited lots of stakeholders to give us a view on the race weekend,” he said.

“The objectives are: Can we make financial improvements, help the teams in terms of their finances? Can we help the promoters have a better show and can we get some diversity into the race without making it false?

“If we can get some diversity into the starting grid, which is genuine because it’s come from a race, maybe that’s worth considering.

“Having an extra race is an impact on the teams, but we need to look at the whole thing.”

In an interview with Sky Sport F1, he added, “We’ve got to look more externally at what F1 needs to be rather than internally – move away from the personal objectives of each team, or the team objectives.

“We’ve put our ideas to the teams and asked them to consider them carefully.”