The fact that teams have to adjust their complete set-up for the weekend after just one session is not something Christian Horner thinks is good – fans should be consulted
For Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, the current parc-ferme regulation on sprint weekends is “a joke.” Teams have to set their set-up after just one hour of practice in the new sprint format this year and are effectively trapped.
This caused some problems in Austin: Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were disqualified after the race because the floor plate on their car was too worn – for many experts a consequence of the lack of learning opportunities.
In addition, four drivers had changed their set-up again before the race and therefore had to start from the pit lane, so there were only 16 cars on the grid.
For Horner, there is therefore still room for improvement: “For me, the parc ferme is a bit of a joke. You have one session to tune your car. And then the engineers might as well go home,” says the Englishman.
“You have to look at that, and I’m sure that was a contributing factor to the ride height issues of the teams that were in violation of the regulations,” Horner said.
He’s not a fan of the new sprint format anyway, which he sees as basically just a long run wrapped up in a sprint. “There’s no real risk and there’s no real incentive,” he says, missing the sporting value.
This echoes the opinion of his driver Max Verstappen, who is also not a fan of sprint races, which were first held in 2021. At that time, the outcome of the sprint had still decided the starting place for the Grand Prix, but since this year the sprint has been decoupled from the rest of the weekend.
Horner is unsure whether the sprint is really what the fans want, and is therefore in favor of conducting another survey: “We should really go to the fans and get their feedback as well. What is it that they want?” he says.
“I think it would be interesting to look at the data at the end of the year to see how popular the sprint races were, because at the end of the day it’s all about the fans,” Horner says. “The reason we have sprint races is to try to provide more entertainment to create a more attractive event.”
“We have to be honest with ourselves at the end of the year, when we have all the samples of the sprint races, and say, ‘Okay, what can we do better? What can we learn? And how can we improve the spectacle?'”
“If the riders enjoy it and find it worthwhile, and the teams find it worthwhile, then I think ultimately the fans will too. “
