Ross Brawn has urged Formula 1 teams to vote in favour of increasing the number of sprint events from three to six in 2023.
F1’s general director of motorsports was overjoyed with Saturday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix sprint race, which generated thrilling racing in the top ten, albeit agony for those in the back half of the field who were stuck in a DRS train.
Given that he was part of that train, Mercedes’ George Russell described the race as “processional,” only for Brawn to insist that F1 would not be listening to back-of-the-grid thoughts.
F1 is, on the other hand, adamant about getting six sprints on the schedule, as was originally planned for this year but was nixed by the teams due to the additional load of the new aerodynamic regulations and the effort needed with the vehicles.
With sprint races on the table for Tuesday’s F1 Commission meeting in London, Brawn said: “We want to discuss increasing it to six, so we would like to have six races next year.”
“I think they [the teams] can see the success. We didn’t know quite where we were last year with the old cars.”
“I think they can see the way this year is feeding into the new cars and the philosophy of the new cars. I am optimistic they will all see the value in it and what we are giving the fans.”
“What we should remember about the sprint is it gives you a great Friday as well. You have qualifying on Friday, we have three days of action for the fans and we cannot ignore that.”
Despite the teams’ accusations last year about the increased costs of sprint racing, Brawn has claimed that they are reimbursed and will be if there are six next season.
“Each sprint has an allowance, at the moment it is three times the allowance, next year it would be six times the allowance,” Brawn added.
“So there is an allowance in the budget cap for the sprint and that will be multiplied by the number of events we have.”
