“I agree that Saturday’s too revealing of what’s going to happen on Sunday”: Carlos Sainz shares his honest opinion on F1 sprint races

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has encouraged F1 to continue its experimentation with the Sprint weekend format as he reckons the current Saturday schedule is "too revealing" of what is to come in the Grand Prix on Sunday.

Three years since F1 introduced the Sprint format, it continues to generate mixed opinions from fans. Since its introduction in 2021, the format has undergone several modifications, with the 2023 format introducing a separate qualifying session and grouping the sprint events on Saturdays.

The current version has been criticized by drivers and fans as the sprint race is a precursor to how the main race would unfold on Sundays. Carlos Sainz called the shorter format the "first stint of the race of Sunday", as he insisted it took out the element of suspense from the Grand Prix.

“I think right now, I agree that six is enough. I agree that Saturday’s too revealing of what’s going to happen on Sunday. It is basically the first stint of the race of Sunday, what you’re watching on TV, and this doesn’t help, I think, the show for the main race that is the grand prix.” Sainz was quoted as saying by MotorsportWeek.com.

The Spaniard was open to the reintroduction of one-shot qualifying or reserve grids, to spice up the action on Saturdays. On this, he said:

“So you arrive to the point, you’d better try something else on Saturday. Is that reverse grids? Is that single-lap qualifying? Whatever, I don’t know. But I think given that the Sprint format is a bit of an experiment going on right now in Formula 1, I would be open to keep experimenting to see which format is best.

“For me the one we have now, just Saturday, doesn’t feel completely right for what then comes on Sunday.”

At the season finale in Abu Dhabi, the F1 Commission announced its intent to modify the sprint weekend format for the next season.

Six sprint weekends are spread across the 2024 season calendar, with Miami and China hosting the format for the first time alongside Austin, Austria, Brazil, and Qatar.

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Carlos Sainz reveals Ferrari's 2024 challenger "behaving differently" in the simulator

As the race to catch up with Red Bull heats up in the winter break, Carlos Sainz has reported that Ferrari's 2024 model has been behaving differently in the simulator.

The 29-year-old is unsure if the simulations will correlate with on-track performance, and thus has a cautious outlook until the car comes off the cover for the winter test.

“I think we're going to need to wait until testing. I think it's incredibly difficult to know,” Carlos Sainz was quoted as saying by Autosport.

“The car in the simulator is behaving differently, for sure. But I think until we put the car in 100 kilos [race fuel] and used tyres, it's going to be impossible to see how the car is actually treating the tyres, treating the pace and how our race pace is going to be affected,” he continued.

Carlos Sainz insists that Ferrari needs to iron out the inconsistencies in order to improve on its 2023 campaign, where they fell short of P2 in the constructors standings by three points.