Between the Racing Lines | Formula One is complicated, confusing and constantly evolving. This story is part of our guide to help any fan — regardless of how long they’ve watched the sport or how they discovered it — navigate the pinnacle of motorsports.
Sprint races are back, Formula One fans.
Terms within this sport sometimes seem complex — parc ferme, autoclaves, degradation, ECU, DRS, HANS and so on — but this is a rare case where you can guess the meaning simply from the name. A sprint race is a mad dash over one-third the normal race distance in which the top eight finishers score about one-third the points they’d receive in a normal grand prix.
Like in 2023, six race weekends will feature sprints this season. China and Miami will make their sprint debuts while Austria, Qatar, Austin and Brazil remain on the slate for 2024.
However, the F1 Commission and World Motor Sport Council approved tweaks to the format. The schedule is still one practice session, two qualifying sessions, a sprint race and a grand prix for the weekend’s schedule, similar to last year, but with minor adjustments to when each session runs.
Here’s how it all goes down.
F1 sprint race history and schedule
F1 introduced sprint races in 2021 in a bid to pack more spectacle into racing weekends with a format that would have drivers go flat-out from lights out to the checkered flag. After running three sprint weekends in 2021 and 2022, it doubled the number to six for 2023 and 2024.
The sport introduced a wrinkle to the format in 2023: the “Sprint Shootout.” In previous years, qualifying took place on Friday ahead of the Saturday sprint, and the sprint finishing order determined Sunday’s starting grid. That format featured two practice sessions, one on Friday and one Saturday. Last year, a Friday qualifying session set the order for the GP, and the Saturday sprint race had its own Saturday qualifying session. The Sprint Shootout replaced the Saturday practice session and followed a standard qualifying format, just with shorter times.
More changes have been made for 2024. The Sprint Shootout is now known as sprint qualifying, and has moved from Saturday to Friday, after the first practice session. The sprint qualifying session will start between 2.5 and 3.5 hours after first practice ends.
Sprint qualifying logistics
| Participants | Time | Tires | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Sprint Qualifying 1 |
All 20 drivers, bottom 5 eliminated |
12 minutes |
Medium |
|
Sprint Qualifying 2 |
Remaining 15 drivers, bottom 5 eliminated |
10 minutes |
Medium |
|
Sprint Qualifying 3 |
Remaining 10 drivers |
8 minutes |
Soft |
The 62-mile (100-km) sprint race remains on Saturday, followed by the grand prix qualifying session. Qualifying will start between three and four hours after the sprint race ends.
F1’s evolving sprint weekend schedule
| 2024 | 2023 | 2021-2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Friday |
FP1, Sprint qualifying |
FP1, GP qualifying |
FP1, Sprint qualifying |
|
Saturday |
Sprint race, GP qualifying |
Sprint qualifying, Sprint race |
FP2, Sprint race (finishing order set grid for GP) |
|
Sunday |
GP |
GP |
GP |
How do grid penalties impact the weekend?
There are still grid penalties to be aware of when it comes time for these weekends. Here’s how and when those will apply:
- First practice and Saturday qualifying grid penalties apply to Sunday’s grand prix
- Sprint qualifying grid penalties apply to the sprint race
- Sprint race grid penalties apply to the grand prix
- Power unit penalties will apply for the grand prix unless it is also a parc fermé breach, in which case it will be a pitlane start. This applies to both sprint and the grand prix.
F1 2024 sprint race calendar
- Chinese Grand Prix (April 19-21)
- Miami Grand Prix (May 3-5)
- Austrian Grand Prix (June 28-30)
- United States Grand Prix (October 18-20)
- Brazilian Grand Prix (November 1-3)
- Qatar Grand Prix (November 29-December 1)
This is an updated version of a story originally published in April 2023.
(Lead image: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images; Design: John Bradford/The Athletic)