Sainz: Saturday morning F1 qualifying without practice will be “intense”
Sainz #Sainz
F1 has tweaked the format for this weekend’s first sprint event of the 2023 season in Baku, with a single free practice session on Friday followed by qualifying for Sunday’s grand prix.
Saturday now features a shorter sprint qualifying ‘shootout’ for the afternoon’s sprint race, meaning drivers will get thrown right into competitive action in the morning without a practice session to warm up.
According to Sainz, being thrown straight into the deep end on Saturday morning will be a huge challenge for the drivers.
“That will be difficult, especially waking up in the morning and going straight into Q1.
“I need to do a good warm-up, maybe a cold shower, make sure I’m really woken up for pushing flat-out in one of these cars on the straight first thing in the morning. I’ll make sure I do my morning routine well because it will be intense.”
Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso thinks Saturdays will now be extra “stressful”, although he felt F1 drivers and fans “have to embrace” the new format.
“I see the point of doing something that different on the weekend, so we have to embrace that, we have to help F1 and hopefully, the fans will give us good feedback on the weekend,” he added.
“But it’s more stressful, especially Saturday. We have breakfast, we go in the car, we tighten the belts, and we are in Q1.
“This is completely new, because even back in 2004 or 2006 we had to always practice before qualifying. Now we don’t have any practice and we’re going to Q1. So yeah, it’s stressful for sure and more difficult for drivers.”
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Team, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin F1 Team
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
During the sprint shootout’s shortened Q1, Q2 and Q3 drivers will have just one set of mediums, mediums and softs available respectively.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon thinks there will be a bigger scope for drivers to make mistakes by starting the day with a truncated qualifying session on a single set of tyres per phase.
“I think as a driver it’s great that you go straight into that shootout qualifying without practice before, because that could bring some uncertainty,” he said.
“Some drivers are not going to be awake, they are going to make mistakes and it’s not going to be the same.
“That brings opportunities and brings skills to the driver more importantly, so I look forward to that.”
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One of the main reasons for the format shake-up was to decouple the sprint race from the main grand prix, so drivers would be encouraged to take more risks as any sprint incident would no longer compromise their starting positions for Sunday.
But several drivers don’t think that will have a big effect as damaging cars in the sprint can still cause headaches for the teams under the cost cap.
“There’s still a budget cap, so you don’t want to damage the car in any way,” said McLaren’s Lando Norris. “You don’t do anything silly.
“Especially for us, when we’re wanting to improve the car as much as possible, the least amount of damage we can cause, the better.
“But I’m excited. I think it’s a better format. I prefer it a long way compared to what we had before. So you have more room, more opportunities for everyone.”
Red Bull’s world champion Max Verstappen added: “There is of course a little bit more risk involved now with the qualifying and stuff.
“But I think when you look at the sprint race itself, I think the risk will be the same because you don’t want to potentially damage your car, which then of course also influences the development of the car, right?
“And then I think I would rather lose one point than lose development.”