F1’s 2024 sprint reform aims to eliminate previous restrictions, allowing for more dynamic weekend strategies. This much-needed overhaul is set to end ‘stupid’ situations, offering teams greater flexibility and strategic depth.
To streamline the weekend’s proceedings, sessions will take place in chronological order. Friday will feature free practice followed by sprint qualifying. Saturday will host the sprint race and then qualifying for the Grand Prix. Sunday remains the day for the Grand Prix.
This format change should also allow for the switch to Parc fermé entry from Saturday afternoon, before qualifying, as on a normal weekend.
This modification was a change requested by many in the paddock, to avoid being stuck in bad setups after only one hour of free practice.
Gasly Praises F1’s Positive Reform Shift
Therefore, Pierre Gasly naturally welcomes this reform positively.
“I think it’s very good, it’s what was missing.”
“Last year, we ended up with extraordinary, brilliant, and great guys who, on Friday afternoon, weren’t allowed to touch anything on our car.”
“That’s what they’re paid for and that’s why they’re the best. It was a bit sad because they have much more to offer than one or two small changes to the front wing and tire pressure.”
“F1 is at the pinnacle of engineering, and I think we should give them the opportunity to make continuous improvements throughout the weekend.”
“You don’t have time to try anything because in one hour of free practice, you’re quite limited, so you always had to do the work in the simulator. And if you realize you haven’t started the weekend with the best settings, your window to react was extremely reduced.”
Parc Fermé Shift Enhances F1 Weekends
Shifting the Parc fermé entry to Saturday should make the weekends less unpredictable: previously, since settings were locked from Friday afternoon, the rest of the F1 weekend was all in all without much surprise.
Just like his teammate at Alpine, Esteban Ocon also welcomes these changes positively.
“Yes, it would be good to do ‘sprint’ qualifying and enter Parc fermé afterwards, for the sprint race, and to allow touching the car again before qualifying (for the Grand Prix). I think that’s what we should do. The weekend would be much more interesting.”
“And we would see a lot fewer mistakes with stupid things – like wear on the floors and others.”
Ocon is also referring here to the disqualifications of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at Austin, a sprint race weekend, for excessive wear of the floor: Mercedes and Ferrari had chosen too risky setups, had realized their mistake, but were unable to correct it due to Parc fermé.
F1 Sprint Reform 2024. F1 Sprint Reform 2024
