Verstappen again criticises sprint racing: 'I don't understand that'

Verstappen still not happy with sprint races

Verstappen thinks sprint qualifying has little added value in a Formula 1 weekend. He believes the sprint is "not really a race" and thinks it is mainly about damage control, despite the fact that he himself has won most of the sprint races held so far. This year, he won both the sprint in Austria and Imola.

That the concept has proved very successful for the Red Bull Racing driver does not weigh into Verstappen's judgement. While he himself is mainly concerned with damage limitation during a sprint, he sees others actually taking extra risk to secure themselves a good starting place on Sunday.

Damage limitation for Verstappen

For himself, it's all about not taking any damage and staying in the top three. "For me, that’s not really a race, because you go into the main race and you know there are way more points available anyway, you just risk a bit more there," Verstappen said in conversation with The Independent. "You do another start, which is exciting, but it’s only really people who are out of position that move forward because only you put a tyre on that just lasts a whole stint and not much happens."

Moreover, the Red Bull driver does not understand why such a format is still deemed necessary to make the race weekend more exciting, especially now that the new 2022 regulations appear to provide more spectacle. "I don’t understand what the problem is for that, because we’ve had so many exciting races, so you don’t need to add one-third of a race distance," said the two-time world champion.

Meanwhile, F1 has announced that the number of sprint races will be doubled in 2023. So there will be not three, but six sprints, as was initially planned for this year. As a result, a quarter of race weekends next year will feature a sprint race on Saturday, possibly including one at Zandvoort.