P1 with Matt and Tommy - The 2024 sprint races have been announced!

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

F1 have announced which venues will host sprint races for the 2024 season - but are they good choices? Let's discuss them!You can sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to exclusive episodes you won't hear anywhere else, every P1 episode ad-free, full driver interview videos, early access to tickets and more!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the P-1 podcast. We are here today in Glasgow, actually. So that's why it's a little bit echoing. We're on the road for the P-1 live tour. But we need to talk about some Formula One sprints that have been announced for 2024. Tommy, you've got them on your laptop right there. I sure have. It starts with the Chinese Grand Prix, the 21st of April, then Miami 5th of May,

Austria 30th of June USA 20th of October Brazil 3rd of November Qatar 1st of December So yeah Six venues again Six venues again Which is good in my opinion

I didn't want any more than six Because you know we have 24 races scheduled next year So you know it is reasonably diluted Into that 30 races technically if you can't sprint at this races. Wow, we're having 30 races. Surprised F1 haven't sort of pushed that as a,

I'm sure they will in 2024. But yeah, it's, yeah, for me, good news because I don't mind sprints. I think that if they tweak the format and make it better, maybe I'd be open to more. But right now, if they are, well, they haven't actually said the format yet, have they? It's just that they've said the venues. No, I really hope they do change that format.

The only thing for me is just the, It's the sprint day is just so needless, in my opinion. The Saturday where you do qualifying again, so it feels like it's so repetitive to do qualifying for Friday, which we don't, nothing happens until Sunday, which is fine if the next session wasn't just qualifying again. You feel like you're just watching your repeat. A lot of the time, it has been a repeat of what happened.

Like, you know who's quick, you know who's going to be good in qualifying. so it doesn't really... That's fine if Charlotte Gluck gets pole, back-to-back poles like in back-of-you, you know what I mean? That was a sensational day. But yeah, and as well, not only dedicating a lot of your time

to that day, but also for really short sessions because it's like a... It's not, you know, we just had Friday qualifying, which was the big boy, and you get into Saturday and it's a short,

sort of 30 minutes of running in qualifying, then we have a short 30-minute race like three hours later. It's just, yeah. But, I mean, look, we've spoken about the format, plenty of times and I think that by the sounds of it they're going to tweak it. I don't know if reverse grids will come in because I would love that in some regard.

Not full one to 20 switch it round but maybe the top six, top eight, something like that. Let's get some spice going in these sprints because then I'd be open to 12. I'd be open to half. If they properly gave us like an F2 format, you know, top eight reverse kind of vibe, sign me up. Yeah, exactly. It needs to be different. There needs to be some kind of. twist to make it, to make it interesting. And fingers crossed, that is the case because

yeah, we've seen the circuits, but at the moment it's kind of like, other than a couple, which will mention that I do think are amazing for sprint. And I think they're definitely learning what works because I think they have picked some good ones here. It all really comes down to the format and whether it's going to be exciting or not. Let's go through each venue then, start with China. Your favourite. So great to see China back on the calendar. Wow.

The Shanghai International Circuit, let's go. It's going to produce probably one of the worst races ever after me being so excited for it. But I'm really excited for China's come back as a whole. And I think as a sprint, I think it would actually lend itself quite nicely to China and that particular track. So I'm all for it. I think probably they've put the sprint there in order to give it a little bit more attention, considering it's not been on the calendar since COVID hit. A little treat for it coming back.

Yeah, so have another race. Lovely. See, I'm excited for it. I think it will be a good venue for a sprint. I am not so sure. No, shut up. How dare you. No slander of the Shanghai.

No, because I'm not slandering it because I, like you, think it's actually a really good and underrated track and it delivers some quite good grand prix. I just don't know whether it's the right venue for a sprint. Why? Because the straight is like four years long. And from what I've learned from Brazil, is that you need short, quick, short lap tracks.

I know that's why skipping ahead that I think some of these will be quite good. But China, I'm still unsure of. But if, you know, they can follow down that straight and swap positions each lap, then maybe. But, yeah, I'm 50-50 on this one. I think this one will come down to like a case of whether we see an interesting format in terms of like, like, say, reverse grid or whatever, then yeah, yeah, it probably will be great. But we'll have to wait and see what they do with that. I can't believe you're 50-50.

I'm 100, because I'm 100 because I love the circuit. And I used to have a number one world record time trial back in 2010. So, you know, not that I continuously remind myself of that. So, yeah, that's China. Next up. Miami. There's one we might agree on. This one.

Hmm. Oh dear. They've, in my opinion, what they've done here is they've gone. Well, Vegas really did do a lot, didn't it? Miami, you don't really do much right now. They don't have a purpose. Let's have a sprint and then we give you two chances to have a good race. Because, you know, even if the sprint's banging and the main race is, you know, rubbish,

overall will go, oh, well, you know, we have a good race. had some good action at Miami. That's my thinking there. I know they're very far apart, but yeah, Vegas seems to have kind of stolen Miami's USP, which was kind of like a celebrity America race, yay, all bells and whistles and fancy. One's in the day and one's in the night, Tommy. I know. But Miami is not great. And the problem with Miami has always been that, and we've seen this every year is there's no running on it at all so it's very very very dirty offline which makes it really hard to overtake so i'm not holding out much hope for the sprint because i don't think people like it's just going to be one of those tracks yeah where are people going to be able to overtake easily

like if they couldn't in the main race why would they be able to in the sprint very true very true I don't hold too much hope out for Miami but as I say they get two rolls of the dice to have a good race round there so let's wait and see what's next next is Austria which we have seen before twice

yeah took it back there in 23 and they've clearly gotten Austria wax and this is what I think they've realised is the short tracks are the ones that sprint were best short tracks Yes. Short tracks. That's the one. So Monaco then, yeah?

Not that one. It's got to overtake. But the shorter lap time, the better. I think the greatest sprint of all time would be at Barron short. We can dream. It would never happen. But yeah, Austria, I think, is a good choice. It's delivered there. Obviously, they got quite fortunate because it was weather dependent. But it's proved that it's good. It works well. Yeah, I agree. I think Austria is a great venue for a sprint, even though on paper, it's not like it's got a huge straight. I mean, to be fair, it's quite a long straight out of turn one, so we've got the kink as well into the heavy, heavy braking zone of a hairpin, which is just beautiful for racing, long straights into a hairpin, not a fast right or a fast left, a heavy braking zone so that drivers can try and outbreak their opponents. It's beautiful. So, yeah, Austria gets a tick from me. Yeah, definitely, 100% agree. It's the way to go in it. like interlagos, which we mentioned is also on this. I feel like Austria and Brazil will be the two like, it's quite clear that Formula One have realised that those two are like going to be on the regular and work really well for it.

Next up is Austin. Yeah. I mean... Kind of 50-50 on this again. Have we had before? We had a sprint there this year, no. And I have completely blanked it from my memory. Of course, Maxis up and won.

You won. Yeah, see, this is exactly, now it's coming back to me. Long tracks like this, lots of corners. You're kind of more normal, longer, one minute, 30, whatever laps with 17 turns. They get spread out too much. I think that's general racing, though, isn't it, as well? Like, I guess that can be said for just generally, even with full race weekends, right? Yeah, true.

But, yeah, it's not a bad one. I guess probably the thinking behind this is that Austin is always a really good venue for fans. I love it as a circuit. You know, I'm saying I don't know if it's going to be good for sprints, but I do love it as a circuit. I feel like it's one of those tracks where, like, it's the real. American F1 fan circuit, whereas Miami and Vegas are a bit more fancy, and they obviously tried to price the real fans out a little bit, whereas Austin, you know, huge sellout, everyone's there in their merch, it feels like a, you know, proper track.

I think they maybe learn, wouldn't they? Yeah. A purpose-built racetrack, as opposed to building a racetrack around things, actually does bring in the fans, because Austin is an amazing venue, I completely agree. and yeah I'm not too upset about it being a sprint because I do think that there is the chance for it you know it all comes down to competitiveness as well like Max Verstappen ruined it because he's really good

and he drove away in almost every sprint but in 2021 the sprints felt really tense because every point mattered in that battle whereas didn't in this same matter in 2020 really at least for the drivers and the constructors championship The front, yeah. At the front, yeah. British bias claxon.

Here we go. Surprise Silverstone, after what was quite a good sprint, the first sprint, just has never been on the calendar since. They were one of the first three. They always get a massive crowd. Maybe the logic is that they always get a massive crowd for practice anyway, so they don't need to put on an extra thing. But surprise, maybe it's not in the conversation.

Probably was in the conversation. I wonder if there is kind of a financial benefit as well for having sprints at certain locations. And I'm sure it's not just a case of, ah, a sprint was good here, let's go there sort of thing. That's why Miami is probably put into this equation. I'm sure there's plenty of promoters for each racetrack or the actual racetracks themselves saying,

well, we need a sprint because we didn't have a good race. And I'm sure there's plenty of arguments and conversations around it because sprints do have more eyeballs on it because of the fact that it's a longer weekend of competitiveness. And I get it from the casual point of view because, you know, say a motorsport series that I casually like, like a motor GP or a, well, I do love IndyCar, but like I'm not as invested as I'm in Formula One.

When they have a double race weekend, I will watch the races, but I won't watch qualifying. And I think that is quite clear that, you know, they'll bring in extra audience. There will always be more viewers for a race than qualifying, even though as hardcore fans know that qualifying is the goat and should just be the main event

based on last year. You sound like a Ferrari fan, maybe. Yeah, but yeah, next is Interlagos, which will be a very short conversation of whether we think that's true or not. Yes. Yes, next. Fantastic. Moving on.

They should be there always. And they've clearly learned because this is the fourth year in a row that they've gone for it. If they removed Brazil as a sprint, we'd need to have a chat. We'd need to have a serious chat. Yeah, I think we had this discussion, didn't we?

I think it was actually during our live show, that the middle section in theory should separate them out, but they managed to stay close and then they get another bit of DRS on the main straight. And I think because they're pushing all the time in a sprint, they don't maybe back off and think, oh, we'll try again later. they know they can follow through that middle sector, stay in the DRS,

then they'll get another go to go back. And that's exactly what happened in that epic Brazil sprint. And it's basically been three from three. It's just urgency, isn't it? It's urgency from the drivers as opposed to like, I need to keep my tyres in a good window. I'm going to go longer before I pit. Yada, yada, yada.

No, it's this amount of laps. Go. Qatar next. The final one. It's a yes from me. 100% yes. Happy with that. Yeah.

Oscar Piastri will also be very happy that's there I think that again it's a quick short tracks I think just suit so nicely to sprints they feel frantic they feel and the drivers one thing they will be happy about

is this is now end of November start of December because obviously we had the big problem of it being a lot hotter than normal this year and all the drivers had you know they were suffering so a bit later on in the day.

And yeah, I think Qatar works really well as a sprint because it's that quick track, lots of quick corners. And it kind of, when it's a short lap and quick corners, I feel like they go by quicker as well. Yeah. So yeah, I like it. Like it a lot. So that's beautiful.

Lovely stuff. That's the six. Is there any that missed out that we wish were there? You mentioned Silverstone. Silverstone, but I am an awful British bias. Let's have a look at the 2024 calendar and see what tracks I think. Baku for me didn't work. Don't think Baku as a sprint.

If I had to pick one, I'd say get rid of Miami and put Vegas as a sprint because the racing there was awesome. And again, high speed track worked really well. I agree with that actually, but then I guess... But then, like, Vegas has already got that thing going for it. Vegas has had enough this past year that Miami would then be like, she getting the sprint as well. Right, and that's it. Thank you everybody for listening, as always.

This is a special audio one, not a video, so hopefully you feel very special. And we'll see you very soon for another podcast. Tommy, what are your final thoughts? My final thoughts are well done Formula One for getting it right on sprint. look at that F1 are going to be blushing with us being so nice about them

see you soon bye bye