EXPLAINED:
F1® SPRINT
A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO THE EXCITING F1 SPRINT WEEKEND
If you're new to the F1 Sprint format, or just want a refresher, here's what you need to know ahead of the first F1 Sprint weekend of 2025...
What is the F1 Sprint?
The Sprint is a short race. It covers 100km – about one-third of a typical Grand Prix distance – and lasts about 30 minutes. This length has been chosen to encourage a race that is dynamic rather than strategic. Unlike a Grand Prix, there are no mandatory pit stops. Pit stops aren’t banned but the race is too short for tyre changes to be effective.
The venues chosen for Sprint events are all tracks with great overtaking potential, picked to try and ensure the Sprint is a flat-out, aggressive melee from start to finish. Points are on offer, from eight down to one, awarded for the first eight cars to finish.
So, how does the F1 Sprint work? A Sprint weekend is different to the traditional Grand Prix weekend but it's still a three-day affair with the Grand Prix as the main event – only with even more excitement!
Over the three days, the F1 cars appear on track for five sessions, similar to the traditional race weekend. However, over the Sprint weekend, two of the practice sessions are deleted and replaced. A Sprint Qualifying session replaces the second practice session on Friday, and sets the grid for the Sprint. Saturday sees the Sprint itself replace FP3, before Qualifying for the Grand Prix happens as normal later that day.
With limited Free Practice running the pressure is on to get the set-up right first time, and with extra points available in a Sprint weekend it's even more intense.
“The Sprint is a great example of bringing new elements to our sport in a way that is respectful of the Championship, and I want to thank the six venues that will host the Sprint in 2025 and look forward to those incredible events throughout the season.”
STEFANO DOMENICALI
President and CEO of Formula 1
Does the Sprint influence the Grand Prix?
No… and yes. The Sprint is designed to be a standalone event. Sprint Qualifying on Friday forms the grid for the Sprint on Saturday, and the result of the Sprint has no bearing on the Grand Prix… except in some very specific circumstances.
The first is a grid penalty. As with any Formula 1 race, a driver picking up a penalty in the Sprint that can’t be served immediately, will serve it at their next race – usually the Grand Prix the following day.
The second is crash damage. A team is allowed to repair crash damage without penalty if they use like-for-like parts – but if a Sprint crash is sufficiently severe that the team needs to change the chassis, then the driver will automatically lose their spot on the grid and have to start the Grand Prix from the pit lane.
The bigger influence on a Grand Prix comes not from the Sprint, but rather from the limited nature of practice, with only one Free Practice session on a Sprint weekend instead of the usual three. This has a profound impact on the teams and how they operate – and not solely because they have only 60 minutes of track time to practice instead of the usual 180.
The car goes out for the single practice session in something as close to its race spec as the team can guestimate. It’s a method of operation that rewards a slick, effective trackside operation – but punishes teams if their best guesses are incorrect. Someone is always caught out, which makes Sprint weekends dramatically unpredictable.
What is Sprint Qualifying?
Sprint Qualifying takes place on Friday. Split into three stages – SQ1, SQ2 and SQ3 – lasting 12 minutes, 10 minutes and just 8 minutes respectively, the session follows a similar format to Qualifying.
The five slowest drivers are eliminated after SQ1, before five more drop out from SQ2 – thereby setting the grid positions from 20th up to 11th in the Sprint.
The 10 remaining drivers head into SQ3 to determine the top 10 grid slots, with the fastest driver starting from the front of the pack in Saturday's Sprint race.
