"This will enhance the spectacle of sprint weekends and enhance the on-track action for fans around the world," the FIA said in a joint statement with promoter Formula One, ahead of the first sprint weekend of the season.
In addition to Azerbaijan, the new format will also be raced in five other Grand Prix, in Austria (July 2), Belgium (July 30), Qatar (October 8), the United States (Austin, October 22) and Brazil (November 5).
In concrete terms, the drivers will only run one free practice session on Friday morning, followed by a first qualifying session in the afternoon that will determine the starting grid for Sunday's Grand Prix.
Saturday will be devoted to sprinting. The drivers will take to the track for a second qualifying session (called "Sprint Shootout"), on the same model as the one on Friday but shorter, which will determine the starting order for the sprint race contested on the same day.
Until now, during sprint weekends, drivers competed in classic qualifying, i.e. time trial, on Friday, which defined the starting order of a 100km race on Saturday, which itself defined the starting grid of the GP on Sunday.
According to the FIA, the new format will offer "more +risks+ thanks to a reduction in practice time and will further encourage drivers to drive Saturday" since they usually did not take all the risks during the sprint in order to secure their position on the grid for the main race.
The allocation of points at the end remains unchanged: only the first eight drivers will score points at the end of the sprint.
This change comes two years after the arrival of sprint races on some GPs and which aim to offer spectacle over three days.
© 2023 AFP