Christian Horner and Toto Wolff are long-time rivals in F1, but the pair are both in agreement over one contentious topic.
Christian Horner has claimed that the rule that means cars are in parc ferme conditions after FP1 during sprint weekends is ‘a joke’. The Red Bull team principal has followed in the footsteps of paddock rival Toto Wolff in questioning the long-term future of sprint races.
After four cars were forced to start from the pit lane for the Grand Prix in Austin the previous time out, concerns were expressed regarding the sprint race experiment’s long-term viability, at least in its current form.
Even worse, the teams’ limitations during sprint weekends were cited as a contributing factor in the disqualifications of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Mercedes and Ferrari both clarified that additional practice sessions probably would have avoided the setup errors that resulted in their technical violations.
Speaking about the talking points from the sprint weekends in Texas and Qatar, Horner remarked, “Pavillon fermé is kind of a joke for me.” After setting up your car in one session, the engineers might as well head home at
“So, that needs looking at and that I’m sure was a contributing factor to the ride height issues of the teams that fell foul of the regulations. Effectively, it’s just a long run on a Sprint race. And there’s no real jeopardy to it, there’s no real incentive behind it.”
Horner also called on F1 to gauge fan opinion on sprint races, adding: “I think it’d be interesting to look at the data at the end of the year of how popular the sprint race has been because, at the end of the day, it’s all about the fans.
The reason we do sprint races is to try and provide more entertainment to create a more attractive event. We have to be honest with ourselves at the end of the year when we’ve got all the samples of the sprint races and say: ‘Okay, what can we do better? What can be learned? And how can we improve the spectacle?’”
Wolff, the boss of Mercedes, shares these frustrations and has called for the complete abandonment of the sprint race experiment before the 2024 season. As of right now, the schedule for the upcoming season will include an additional six sprint weekends.
Regarding his grievances, the Austrian told Sky Sports F1: “I’m more conservative. Sprint weekends aren’t my thing. It seems like an odd schedule to me. You’re eliminating a great deal of the suspense surrounding the Sunday; you can see how the rankings will work out. Overall, I’d prefer not to have them.