From 2023, not three but six sprint races will take place. Doubling the number of sprint races is an idea of F1 and to ensure its popularity, special attention has been paid to the best calendar for these six short races.
Formula 1 didn’t seem to listen to drivers when it announced it would double the number of sprint races next year, but the sport has been thinking about how to make sprints as fun as possible.
Thus the relevance of the short races on Saturday compared to the main race has been taken into account. On circuits like Imola, where overtaking is very difficult, it is neither fun nor profitable to have a sprint race. Consequently, F1 has now drawn up a provisional calendar of six sprint races in 2023 which should work.
The first sprint race will take place during the fifth F1 weekend of 2023 in Azerbaijan. After the success of the previous Brazilian Grand Prix, the Sao Paulo sprint race will also be back next year. The other four will take place in Austria, Belgium, Qatar and the United States in Austin. Changes to these are still entirely possible, with Qatar in particular still a question mark.
Two qualifications during the sprint weekend?
F1 is also considering adding a second qualifying session during sprint weekends.
If this were the case, Friday would remain as it is now and there would be another qualifying session before or after the sprint race which takes place on Saturday (instead of Free 2) and which would determine the starting grid for on Sunday. With this, the pilots might dare to take more risks during the sprint.