Verstappen still struggles to get excited by sprint success

AUSTIN, Texas — Max Verstappen has reiterated his criticism of Formula One’s sprint race format, saying it detracts from the excitement of a race weekend.

Verstappen has been a vocal opponent of sprint races since they were first introduced in 2021 and has not warmed to them despite changes to the format to improve the show.

This weekend’s U.S. Grand Prix is being run to a sprint format, meaning qualifying for the grand prix took place on Friday, a second qualifying — known as the shootout — ran on Saturday, which then set the grid for the 19-lap sprint race later the same day.

The full 56-lap grand prix will get underway on Sunday as normal.

The sprint race pays out a maximum of eight points for winning with further points given in descending order down to a single point for eighth place.

“If you want my honest opinion about sprint weekends, I don’t really get excited by it,” he said after taking pole in the shootout and winning the sprint at the Circuit of the Americas.

“I just feel like once you complete [Friday] qualifying you are a bit lost. I feel like we only need one qualifying in the weekend where you really put everything on the line and it feels great.

“This morning as well, I put it on P1 and was like ‘pfft it’s a Saturday, there’s not many points anyway for the race’. And besides that like now we’ve done this race everyone more or less knows what’s going to happen tomorrow between all the cars in terms of pace, so it takes away a bit the excitement of it.

“If we had not done today, and we only have the qualifying that we had yesterday, you don’t really know what’s going to happen in the race, it’s exciting to turn on the TV because you don’t know, and also we don’t know … but now we know.”

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen came out on top in Saturday’s sprint ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of United States. Mark Thompson/Getty Images

When Lewis Hamilton, who finished second in the sprint race and was sat next to Verstappen in the press conference, suggested to the Red Bull driver he sounded bored by winning, Verstappen added: “Not bored, but also as a fan I would just be disappointed because you more or less know the picture, if nothing crazy happens, you know what’s going to happen tomorrow.

“So I find that takes away a bit that magic of waking up on a Sunday and turning on the TV and you had qualifying but you’re not sure what car’s going to be quickest — most of the years — and it takes that magic away, I find.”