Machine guns! The halo is perfect for mounting them.

3:13 'Hamilton accounts for Nintendo 64% of position changes'

04:05 been saying this from the start; all the sprint is doing is negating any surprises quali might throw up. It gives the top teams a third of a race to make their way back the front after any quali mishaps, and mid field teams a third of a race to lose any impressive quali result and end up ‘where they belong’. More over, it gives all the teams a lovely little simulation of how the race will go and how the tyres will behave so come the actual grand pros there’s even less possibility of surprise. Personally I still like the idea of the sprint being it’s standalone thing with a reverse grid order and give points to the top 8 or 10. The top teams have an incentive to push from the back as there’s good points on offer, and the lower teams also get racy for points they wouldn’t necessarily be able to get in a full race, and everybody has a bit of fun with wheel to-wheel racing and overtakes without worrying about compromising the Sunday race🤷🏻‍♂️

You're exactly right about the strategy aspect. I remember watching the Sao Paulo sprint and thinking how much lamer it is than the race, because once it settled down, I couldn't even look forward to who will pit when, or watch with anticipation whether or not we'll see another fumbled pit stop, or cross my fingers that my favourite driver manages to undercut the car ahead of him. A pit stop can make or break a race. That said, I like your ideas, and maybe some of them could actually make up for the lack of pit stops.

As I commented on the F1 subreddit, the problem with the sprint qualifying format is that after the first lap the risk-reward calculation for 80% of the drivers swings heavily in favor of playing it safe. Unless you're near the front and fighting for those few championship points, there's not much to be gained from fighting for position relative to the risk of crashing out and ruining your grid position for the actual race.

I dont mind having reverse grids for sprints if they dont impact the actual grand prix.

Sprint qualifying races were introduced to increase the interest over the weekend. Given the best part is the start, why not make them 3 short 3 lap races, with the last 5 eliminated in the first race, likewise the second race, with the 10 best fighting for pole in the last race. I picked 3 laps to give drivers a chance to regain places lost at the start. At the end of each race the cars do two laps, the first to allow the eliminated cars to exit and the second as a formation lap to grid up. I reckon that would have everyone on the edge of their seat for 30 minutes and you don't need to worry about other gimmicks such as championship points.

Love the sprint championship idea, but I’d combined it with the “sprint results set next sprint grid” so it’s essentially one race separated over 6 weekends and 6 tracks, but for the same points as a single race.

I would love to see hypersofts come in. Make them all do a one stop sprint and then have some variety based on how teams like the track position they have.

Chaining sprints together and having the finishing order determine the grid for the next one would make drivers take even less risk than they did this year. Because crashing out would put anyone at a HUGE disadvantage. That would be less entertaining to watch than FP1.

Honestly I'd like to see the F2 style reverse grid race, it might be a bit artificial, but watching drivers fight through the field is the best part of watching races. Alternatively reworking it to feel closer to NASCARs stage system where you get some points for a position but less than a race win could be interesting

14:08 Perhaps Pirelli could bring more varied compounds.... instead of the C1, C2 and C3 for example, perhaps for the Sprint they could use the C1, C3 and C5 which could potentially allow pit strategy to be a factor - for example, Starting on the Soft C5 and then pitting for another set of Soft C5's might turn out significantly faster than starting and finishing using a single set of Hard C1 tyres.

The Sprint idea didn't come from "hey, you know what would be great?" It came from "we think we need a headline event on each day of the 3-day grand prix weekend, what do we concoct to put next to qualifying and the race?" The Sprint weekends actually show me that F1 should seriously consider 2-day weekends, especially with the calendar expanding more and more.

I really like the idea of q1 session setting the grid for the sprint race What if they had to start the actual race on the same worn tires they finished with in the sprint? Would that add a strategic pit stop in the sprint?

@3:08 nintendo 64%?? I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn't crazy.

Ok here's what I would like: Qualifying on Friday which sets the grid for the Sunday race, but for Saturday sprint, you reverse the grid and do the 21-1 points for the "Sprint Championship", and in the end once all the points are tallied, the top ten receive 50, 45, 40, 35, etc. points for the actual championship. I think that's fair, not TOO much but enough incentivize the teams.

I like how at 9:24 he still marks Mazepin as last of the grid even though it's the second best lap hahahaha

The fact that we have to try so hard to make to make sprint racing work in Formula 1 shows that we really don’t need it. Out of all the problems we’ve had in F1 in the last 5 years with racing qualifying was always the one thing that everyone always loved, I think we’re better off without sprints

I still feel that the best option is scrapping sprints entirely, we simply do not need them.

Love the Q1 idea, it's beauty lies in its simplicity. I hope Ross Brawn sees this On a side note, it's not a fleshed out idea, but what would you think about awarding point based on how many places you gain in sprint. This way in Q1 you'd have to to set a time that is fast enough to get to Q2, but don't want so far ahead that you don't have any opportunity to make up places in the sprint

Qualifying sets race grid order. Sprint grid is reverse order but doesn’t impact the race 10 points for the winner dropping by 1 points each position. Sunday race isn’t ruined, everyone would be flat out in the sprint with fast cars going for big overtakes.

I have no Idea about how points should be rewarded for sprint races, but for the rest I'm quite sure about my wishes: Qualifying on Friday for Race on Sunday. The less the teams are able to collect data the better. Sprint races, and hear me out on this one, should always start in reverse championship order. Every battle would be meaningful. There is nothing exciting or meaningful about VER or HAM cruising by 80-90% of the field with DRS open cause of the sheer speed difference. Maybe I'm too harsh but honestly compare the VER HAM duels with either of them overtaking LAT or GIO or any of those. In reverse Championship order every battle in the beginning is against your closest rivals. With the potentially faster one behind and slower in front. The pressure to clear the slightly slower one in front while keeping the other behind would make me sit on the senate edge. The slower cars will surely try everything to keep every single position, while the faster cars would try hard to clear them and put cars between themselves and their championship rivals.

I'm inclined to keep the points small for now, so experiments like you've mentioned can be done without a big drama around it determining the championship. I've enjoyed the sprint weekends as is, but would love to see different things tried out without it becoming the focus of the sport.

So many good point and an overall thorough analysis of the lackluster concept that is the sprints. Thanks for the video Stuart!

Friday: *60 Minute Practice. *Qualifying - Q1 & Q2. Counts towards Sundays grandprix and end of Q2 sets grid for Sprint race. . Saturday: *30 Minute Practice for young drivers only who dont have a main drive. *Sprint race - Small amount of points awarded. . Sunday: *30min warm up for drivers eliminated in Q1 & Q2. *Qualifying - Q3 - Top 10 Shoot out. *Normal Grand Prix

We could get rid of FP2 on sprint weekends and run a separate qualifying session and maybe make it one-shot qualifying. That might mix up the grid a bit without it seeming too artificial.

I really like this video! It accurately describes why i dont like sprint races right now (something i wasnt sure how to describe myself). But it also gives enough new and excitong ideas for sprints that im not chanting get rid of them! Love the chaining of sprint race ideas maybe have them in batches of 3 or 4 that at the end count as a full race points. The q1 idea is also great. And the 2nd fastest quali lap would be much fun, although i think crofty and brundle would spend more than half of quali trying to explain it.

I think this video brought up a lot of good ideas that one day hopefully could get implemented. Great job!

So, what made brazil so amazing was having Hamilton battle everyone. What made Hungary so good was Alonso battling for his life. Why don't we have an Overtaking race instead of the Sprint? Qualifying set's the grid for the race and the "Sprint" is reverse grid. Then you give points relative to the overtakes and positions defended. For example Mazepin start's P1 and is given points for every faster car that finishes behind him and his final position. Max or Lewis get points for positions gained and final position. Is obviously a bizarre idea and the example was on the top of my mind, I'm just suggesting it for fun, but... If what we like is on track action and we don't want to change the WC let's have a "Overtaking" race where wheel to wheel racing is the point.

Make teams run their reserve driver in one of the cars

I like the idea of "Joker Laps" in the sprint race to get some kind of strategy into the format. Really liked the ideas you showed.

Some great ideas, I really like the idea about have Sprints as a separate points, that add in to the main championship at the end. But could be tweaked, to say half points for everyone. Or the points could be just for construction championship, create a some tension between driver/ team.

The big issue is finding a way to get the teams to care about the Sprint without too many points being on offer, so the solution seems to be to offer non-points based incentives. Set the Sprint Grid by "Reverse use of Budget Cap" (the team that's spent the least gets the front row, etc.). Best combined team position gets an additional PU change for both cars + 1 development token. Second gets a choice of a free PU change for both cars or 1 development token. Third gets whatever Second didn't pick.

This year would have created the perfect conditions for Formula E style quali for the sprints. Drivers sent out in 4 groups in quali order in the morning, in championship order for a one-shot style quali, potentially even without superpole. It's the exact thing that sprint format was designed for - it fucked up this year's FE championship but with such a spread out F1 grid, the Haas', William or Alphas could have a proper chance at some points (If we go by top 8)

Nice editing, great analysis!

Connecting each sprint to each other to make it so that's it's basically one gp that lasts the whole year, and rewarding one race's worth of points for the sprints sounds perfect

If we HAVE to have them, I'd like to see the F2 style reversed top 10 and it be a standalone race, that doesn't impact the GP grid

Easiest and best solution is for sprint grids to be a reverse grid from the finishing positions from the last race. The finishing positions in the sprint will then be grid for the grand prix removing the need for traditional qualifying that weekend and throwing a stone into the works.

An idea I had was to split sprints between the front and back half of the grid - either run two sprint races, or perhaps alternate which half participates. This gives the teams at the back a real chance to get some points on a more regular basis, something that they usually don't have much hope for - under normal circumstances the top five teams will (or should) take the points positions fairly easily. It also means that those at the back of the front half *need* to attack, as there is a real chance of those behind the championship being able to catch them - unlike now where the team in say 7th in the championship has no hope of catching whoever is in 6th

So perhaps start the race, have a lap, stop the race and repeat thereby having 15-20 "first laps"?

Six Way to improve F1's Sprints

5:00 While I understand the artificiality of reverse grids, I think it’s a bit unfair to say they punish the better performing drivers. They punish the best *cars* and drivers. All we need to do is look at Ricciardo v Norris, Bottas v Hamilton, and even Perez v Verstappen this year to see how a very talented driver coming through the field, in ostensibly the same car, is different than a more average driver (they’re all still F1 drivers, so the margins are thin between talent, but still). I contend that reverse grids would allow those better drivers to pull off all-time moves every sprint. The only drivers in the fastest cars that need fear being “held up” or “artificially punished” are the ones who aren’t as good at overtaking. It’s at least part of the reason Valterri has struggled to come thru the field compared to Perez for the last half of this season. His racecraft just isn’t as strong. And it’s a bunch of crazy hairless apes strapping themselves into carbon fibre road rockets to see who can go around a strip of asphalt the fastest for sport. The whole thing is artificial.

Honestly, a straight reverse of the championship standings would be great, especially with real points for the top 6 (either the 10, 6, ... Or 8,6,...). It gives the back marker teams a real chance for points and can't be gamed by the top teams like just reversing part of the grid based on quali.

I hope the FIA follows these videos, this one in particular. As a long time hard core fan I agree with almost all of these. Great job on this and thank!

2 things i would like to see. Qualy going to single lap will mix up the grid more frequently without being artificial. The tires you finish the sprint on are the tires you start the race on.

3 sprints. You have to take a pit stop in one of those three across the season and you have to use all tyres across the three sprint races over the season. It brings strategy into the sprints. When to use what tyres where etc

Can we add sprinklers for the "Strategic element"? BTW great suggestions and awesome video. You are the best F1 related YT channel.

One thought on "reverse grids" - what about "randomised reverse" grids? Rough sketch: 1. Run qualifying as normal 2. Cars eliminated in Q1 enter mini-ballot and are randomly allocated Ps 1 to 5 on sprint grid. 3. Cars eliminated in Q2 enter mini-ballot for Ps 6 to 10 in Sprint 4. Q3 cars in ballot for positions 11 to 20 in sprint - possible amends could be: a) Top 4 get positions 17 to 20 - but also get points in Sprint Championship b) Pole-sitter guaranteed not to start on back row c) driver who qualifies tenth must start in P16 (to incentivise every car going out) Essentially - mixing up the grid but with a good combination of reason, reward, and random!

Basically the same as having 2 football matches where one is only one half and only counts for a point instead of 3. 1 Qualy session. 1 Race. We don't need more stuff just for the sake of having more racing. Making cars easier to overtake and having budget caps are already huge improvements but we dont need mode races.

Have a one lap Quali for the sprint, starting in reverse grid order. Everybody gets theyre spot in the sun and the fast cars need to go out first, hence the greener track makes them slower. Depending on Track it will be stronger or weaker, so sometimes the lower championships standings teams can get faster times. Maybe have 2 laps, first everybody once, then a second lap for everybody. If you bodge the first lap, you can still hope that somebody else does too so the second lap is the fight for the losers. I imagine it like downhill ski races were the fastest person is in the hot seat and all other trying to kick him of and that would create some excitemet. Mainly i think it serves to show drivers to the audience you usually dont see, like having an onboard of them for theyre fast lap.

Fantastic and well-thought out video as always. To me, all it seems sprints are good for is waiting for one of the leading drivers to make an error (Perez at Silverstone, Gasly at Monza), to subsequently drop them down the order and force them to have to carve their way from the back the next day. If F1 wants more of that, they need drivers to push more, thus I have to agree there needs to more incentive other than a measly points offering. Maybe points are awarded to all, but are only used in the main championship table as a tiebreaker. This make little difference to the leading pack, who'll just be chasing better grid slots (and maybe that's where strategy can come into play), but for those at the back who rarely have a chance to sniff at the top 10, it's a way of boosting their championship position, better than the current "best result" tiebreaker, which I've always felt is a little flawed.

I recommend that the DRS is allotted by time, for use at driver's discretion, each getting, say, 100 seconds (or whatever seems to work out) of "button time". The timer would run whenever the button was held down, regardless of whether the driver was on the brakes and thus DRS disabled, adding a skill element. Yeah, sort of like PTP in IndyCar, but pure aero. I've recommended this for the full race in the past.

I’ve been thinking about this this week and here’s the best I could come up with. I propose doing a reverse championship order grid except every driver no matter the position gets 1 championship point for each overtake they make during the sprint (except for overtakes on your team mate for obvious reasons). With the sprint result setting the grid for the race, same as the current format. I think this addresses the issue of artificially punishing successful drivers because although starting from the back gives a disadvantage in terms of track position you gain the advantage of having the maximum number of potential points you can get from the race. Another advantage of this is that with this point system it’s unlikely the sprint will have a huge impact on the two championships on the higher end but provides the best opportunity to gain points for the slower teams each weekend. It also incentivises super aggressive racing throughout which would make it more of a sprint than the more processional current format. This would obviously mean no conventional qualifying, so I would only implement this at every other race at most.

Great video! The issue for me with some of the ideas you propose, while intriguing, they are overly complicated. For example, the sprint championship then giving points to the main championship, or grids carrying over from race to race, or some of the more expensive ideas like ERS deployment rules and sprint only compounds. It makes the sport overly confusing. Not to mention the problem of these races either having too much of an effect in the championship or being worthless. There is something about the trial this year that not enough people seem to realise. Even only having 3 sprints and them avarding very little points, Verstappen has achieved 5 more points than Hamilton across them. And given how tight the championship currently is, it could well come down to those points. Even with very little influence, these events matter a lot. Call me a fan stuck in the past, but to me the sprints havent't worked and I would not consider it for next year. It is an overly complicated format that doesn't really work. The only positive I found is having a competitive session on a Friday. But event then I really like what we normally have and I think it works well, BUT, if we need a competitive session, here is and idea I thought of: -Friday: FP1 in the morning, Q1 and Q2 in the evening. Top 7/8 are locked in a Saturdays shootout, with the fastest driver in Q2 going out last to benefit from track evolution. -Saturday: FP2 (still relevant because the fight for pole is still yet to come). Then a 10 minute Last Chance Qualifier so the Q2 drivers who didn't end in the top 8 still have a chance to enter the shootout. The fastest 2 drivers from this session move to the shootout for pole, which becomes a 1 lap attempt to get pole. This combines a few things. FP2 remains relevant, you get competitive sessions on Friday. The Last Chance Qualifyer is inspired by MotoGP's format, which I personally like. And then you get all the excitement, pressure and intrigue from 1 shot quali

Chain bear, absolutely love your ideas. Hopefully the FIA have a look at your ideas!

I like the Sprint Championship idea and of the order for the previous one ... and what about doing Friday: FP1 and Spint, Saturday: FP2, FP3 and Qualy so you concentrate the FP's more for Sunday (in this case the First Sprint will be determinate by the finals positions of the previous Sunday Race, the other Sprints will be determinate by the last Sprint positions)

I like the idea of making them a very long race with multiple episodes. The first episode could start with a reverse grid, all the others would follow the result of the last episode. Maybe they could even keep the same tyres from the last episode, so they had some strategy to play with - in this case I think the sprint should be shorter. The objective would be to make the best position in the final episode, the only one that would count points to the world championship, the amount being similar to a normal race. Although the best cars would easily overcome the reverse grid along the way, there are many things that could go wrong with that many race starts and overtakes.

The most important question should be "do we need Sprint races?" Since the answer is no the solution is obvious. If you want a sprint race watch F2. More sprint races would also create a need for increased number of engines in the annual allocation.

10:48 green shells and bananas! Forcing a driver ahead of you to spin out with a well-timed snipe could be super rewarding.

Honestly reverse grid and separate championship sounds pretty good to me, maybe say that it finished atleast 3 races before the end of the season. The amount of points given could be discussed.

Really like your ideas in this vid, maybe some harder to follow for newcomers, but very fun. The one thing I would NOT want to see is the mgu limits. Id prefer mechanical restrictions over software restrictions any day

Every race in F1 is a historic event, the stakes are massive and huge risks are the norm. That's why F1 is so epic. Sprints only take away from the races and these "improvements" only overcomplicate the sprints.

I really like the Q1 idea for setting the sprint grid and browsing through the comments section I'm not the only one. It adds an extra challenge to the overall hour of qualifying because the top teams will have to decide whether they want to use a second set of tyres or not in Q1 to improve their sprint grid position but at the cost of not having two new sets of tyres available for Q3 runs so they're put under more pressure to perform there.

Chaining the sprints and then giving championship points for overall sprint result, sounds good, 2nd best qualifying times also is a good idea, but i would still like some element of the reverse grid. Also fan participation that gives the driver a pct of battery use would be a fun element.

Thank you again for a well explained, nicely illustrated video. I would propose: 1 detach sprints from the regular championship, as Denise suggested 2 award the old point system of 10-1 for the first 6 drivers 3 use ultrasoft tires that require 1 pitstop during the sprint 4 penalize drivers with grid drop places based on their licence point penalties since the last sprint (to help show the audience who are the cleanest drivers) 5 NO reverse grids, which are artificial, unsporty and prone to cheating 6 engine penalties are only for the race, not like HAM Brazil, so he would have "started" 25th, so effectively 20th 7 suitable tracks only; Monza was the wrong choice, though I understand the commercial aspect, better to pick another Italian race like Imola or Mugello

Maybe use high deg compounds for the sprint so that they're forced to pit or risk a puncture like at Qatar

The idea of having each sprint race determine the grid order of the next is a really attractive one. It addresses the issue of slower cars having nothing to race for while also not creating the issue of the sprints having too much weight on the championship. I think main f1 championship points for the top five would be enough for each race, and then, the sprint races also count towards a separate sprint championship table in which the top 5 constructors of just the sprint races at the end of the year get some bonus points added to the main f1 championship table. When it comes to constructors fighting for midtable positions, something like a 15 point boost can easily be a massive boost. Imagine aston martin being able to invest a little bit more in sprint races so that they get one place higher at the end of the season. That would be cool.

A Sprint championship detached from the race as you mentioned where they get points at the end for the real championship. Sound really intresting.

Theres only 1 way to improve sprint races... Get Rid. The 'problem' with F1 is already the procession. Sprint + Quali = 2 Opportunites for the fastest to filter forward, before the real battle for points begin. Currently, if a Lewis messes up quali, someone else gets a chance. But, If there is still a sprint race to go, the Lewis (or Seb if it were his era) has a good opportunity to mitigate damage.

Option C, do away with sprints entirely. They are causing their own new set of problems and the proposed solutions only further muddy the understanding for fans. See NASCAR.

Excellent suggestions & framing. I’ve thought about sprint long & hard (lolz) this past year & quite enjoy them, but, as your show here, their context does not smoothly fit on the grander scheme of F1. So here are 3 sprint formats I have come up with; 1) 5 sprint races/season Reduce race length to ~75KM Reverse grid start (based on quali laps times) The last 4 to cross the checkered flag are eliminated from the following race Top 12 get points towards DC & CC 2) 3 sprint races/season Normal Grid based on quail times Points for DC & CC are awarded based on your NET position changes (ex. If you gain 2 in the first, lost 1 in the second & lost 1 in the third, you would get 0 points) 3) 6 sprint races/season Normal grid start based on quali times Sprint race EXCLUSIVELY for reserve/junior drivers Points awarded for each race go towards SRC (sprint race championship) Top 10 total point finishers get points towards CC F1 community gets to vote for “Sprint Driver of the Series” (1-2-3) (like an expanded version of driver of the day) I think anyone of these would add an extra dimension to the sport.

i think setting the grid for the sprint would be a good chance to test any changes to quali. like a one shot quali for use at Monaco and Monza to avoid the traffic jams you see at these tracks

The problem with a full reverse is that it diminishes the value of points to backmarkers. Would you rather see Williams get their first points in an action-packed hard-fought Hungarian GP, where they took advantage of the situation, or just being gifted a front row by qualifying trash? Reverse top 10 and 11-20 for sprints.

How to improve f1 sprint races? Get rid of them

I like the idea about the special Sprint Race tires. Sounds like a job for Michelin!

Great video as always! I have been thinking about this. Wouldn't it be great that the sprint events have a reverse gird based on driver championship standing at that time. At the end of the sprint CFD simulation and windtunnel hours are distributed to the drivers (teams) together with serious cash for the teams. By doing this the sprint races are important for the teams as the quality of their cars for the championship depend on it . It will elevate existing duals between teams. eg. Williams really needs to finish in front of Alfa Romeo/ Alpine vs Alpha Tauri/ Ferrari vs Mclaren. It is also easy to explain to new fans of F1 In my mind the weekend would look like this: Friday: FP1 Park ferme 1 start Qualy in format as we have now. this determines the start position of the race Saturday Park ferme 1 stops FP2 Park ferme 2 starts Sprint ( reverse grid based on driver championship position) Sunday Race

My Idea: Limit battery capacity during the Sprint according to Quali placement P20 - P16 get 100% P15 - P11 get 98% P10 & P9 95% P8 & P7 93% P6 & P5 91% P4 & P3 90% P2 % P1 88% I have no Idea how that would work out but I want to see it

Brilliant video. Greetings from Colombia

Caltrop drop pods which can be employed whenever a follower is within DRS range would be cool!

I really like your sprint championship idea!

Move the sprint to the FP1 slot, make the teams make a best guess at car set up and have the drivers have to adapt to what would probably be a softer set up then ultimate qualifying or race set up would be. Teams can gamble on finer set ups if they think it worth the risk or if the driver is adaptable. Points for reward in proportion to distance travelled so ~1/3 race points to make it worthwhile for the teams.

What I liked about the Sprint is that it gives teams options to see how their strategy can improve over a weekend. Like Silverstone doesn’t happen if Lewis doesn’t see he can’t run the outside in trying to overtake Max at Copse in the Sprint.

Love the ideas proposed! I would like to have a championship where at every gp the points go from 21 to 1 💪

Ooo I do like the idea of the sprints being part of one long multi track race and then at the end you get the full race points

Tracks which allow different layouts might be interesting for sprints. Like for Bahrain use the normal for the race, but the outer layout or the long layout used in 2010 for the sprint to mix it up a bit.

Absolutely nailed it. These changes would make it epic, especially taking Q1 times for the grid

i would love reverse grids maybe based on main championship postion for the sprint races. Since there is no strategy to create pace difference, having a reverse grid can be used to artifically create racing in the sprints. Include this into the seperate table for sprint races, and you may get quite a messed up sprint table that can give points to the mid\lower teams, where points make a bigger difference

The sprint races are not really for the television audience, they are more for getting more people to the track in person on friday and saturday, and in that f1 has a great idea. Having gone to a few races in person with friends who are not super into f1 it was hard to convince them to go friday and saturday morning when we knew the cars wouldnt be pushed hard for most of the day. The sprint races do just that, bring a whole new level of involvement to non-f1 people

For the sprint race teams could race for minor increase in budget cap and also wind tunnel time, for the year, extra set of tyres during race all while doing it in reverse grid to give the B teams a handicap basically for the race. Drivers who are battling for the championship would take less risk but a driver like Pierre Gasly would drive harder to give the team boost in resources

I think what's interesting in the sprint races can't be measured just by the number of overtakes but also by how close they race: how much overtake *opportunities* we see.

i really like the idea of having a sprint championship which gives points to the main championship at the end, maybe that with having reverse grid order from normal qualifiying, so youd still want to quali high for the main race for the big points but still get a more dynamic sprint grid, maybe only reversing the top 10 or 15 to not make backmarkers go slow on purpose, since they likely dont have a chance at points in the main event anyways.

Cant get enough of these videos

I think an alternative to the extreme hard could a different kind of compound set for the sprints. Maybe just a soft and a hard, but make it so that a hard can maybe just make it to the end but the soft you can push flat out on a pit stop. Then you can have that second phase where the drivers on the softs can fight back through those on the hard compound to try and make up that gap. Could be an interesting concept, but i think we will need to have at least another season to experiment with sprint races, and try different ideas in them instead of having them the same, but like you said, its hard to get proper testing without a championship incentive.

I like the idea of point for at least to 15th that everyone has something to fight for as almost zero breakdowns now.

I like the idea of a sprint championship. It is just an extra race only with a very weird track and multiple restarts. Could maybe even more fun if you have to start on the same tire you ended your last sprint in, that way you force more tactic in the sprint-races. You will get the question whether teams should change their tires just before ending the sprint and losing a few places at the strart of the next sprint-race but having a better start or starting on pole but having used tires.

I really like those suggestions. The sprint championship is great because it's a low risk medium reward since losing it don't affect championship that much but can give some extra points in the figth. Or maybe give some other bonuses like free engines or a "you don't need to use 2 different compounds" ticket. Another thing they should do is remove parc fermé for the sprint.

Another idea to spice up the sprints (and it may be so fun that the format would soon be brought to the main races): split them up into three stages. 5 laps for the 1st 2 segments and 10 laps for final segment. Standing starts for each segment, or implement a new double file nascar style rolling start at the start finish line (or 300 feet before it in a "restart zone") to start segments 2 and 3... and of course the 1st 2 segments must be worth points and the final segment worth more points.

BTCC approach of reverse grid I liked a lot. One where after regular Q (one change would be - it gives half of position for Sunday so has direct impact on starting position) 10th place holder takes ball out of bowl to determine how many top places are reversed (anything from 7 to 12, making it "more fair" as now 10th place on grid actually can be worse than 11th with free tyre choise). Now sprint race itself rewards a bit more points to drivers (nothing crazy but still rewarding for at least top6) but also gives 2nd half of position for Sunday race. So one lap performance matters. Medium-short performance matters. And overtaking skills matters.

I genuinely prefer the sprint races from Aarava's MyDriver career, over what we got in real life: -Completely separate from the main Grand Prix -Sprint tire compounds, which wear out extremely fast, adding strategy to the mix -Points for all drivers, which encourages battling on track It also uses shorter layouts of the tracks, which is unfortunately impossible to implement in real life (except Bahrain maybe), but it could work without them So it has got 4 out of 6 points you mentioned at the end

Can also get more money for teams that may need it more than others. Sprints can also be the formate needed to try out new things and see what sticks and what doesn't.