Vasseur gives sprint qualifying tweak thumbs-up

Frederic Vasseur has given the thumbs-up to Formula 1’s sudden qualifying format change in 2023.

In Melbourne, it emerged that the ’sprint race’ weekend format was set for an immediate tweak, with a second and separate qualifying session added.

Now, for the sprint weekends, there will be just a single practice session before the first qualifying session on Friday - which will determine the order of Sunday’s grid.

Then, on Saturday, there will be another qualifying session specifically for the sprint race that takes place later that day.

"The new format should be more dynamic," Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur is quoted by Russia’s Sport-Express.

"One can, of course, argue about why these changes are being made so late. But in the end, since we all agree on them without exception, it is worth doing.

"I like the format," he insisted. "I’m not a big fan of the regular practice format, which is sometimes pretty boring.

"Not for us, because the teams collect a lot of data, but for the audience. If you don’t know what the teams are doing, how much fuel someone has and so on, it can be really boring.

"So trying to make the weekend more dynamic is a good decision," said Vasseur.