The variety of dash races on the System 1 calendar will double to 6 subsequent yr however the sequence’ outgoing managing director of motorsports admits he stays not sure what the perfect quantity needs to be.
Ross Brawn is retiring from F1 this low season, bringing to an finish a profession of over 4 a long time within the sport. He spent the final 5 years working with System One Administration after its takeover by Liberty Media and has launched main adjustments to the sporting facet of System 1 in that point, together with the funds cap and dash races.
Three dash races had been scheduled throughout every of the final two seasons. The format will develop to cowl six of the 24 rounds on the 2023 F1 calendar.
Brawn advised the official F1 website he isn’t positive what number of dash races F1 ought to maintain in a season. “The dash was an initiative which appears to have labored,” Brawn stated. “We’re increasing to 6 sprints subsequent yr.
“I don’t know what would be the optimum quantity we are going to settle at long-term. Some argue we should always have it at each race. We’ll see if that’s the way it evolves. The dash has actually livened up the entire weekend and offers us a full three days of motion.”
Dash races have been criticised by some followers and drivers. World champion Max Verstappen has been vocal about his dislike of the format, arguing that the steadiness of danger and reward means drivers will naturally err on the facet of warning throughout dash races. The controversial format has since been adopted by the motorbike world championship Moto GP, which can run dash races following qualifying in any respect of its rounds subsequent season.
Brawn believes System 1 ought to recognise the areas of the game which can be robust and ensure to not danger altering them an excessive amount of, equivalent to the normal three-stage qualifying format.
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“On the sporting rules, we’ve had an open thoughts about how we should always develop the race weekend format,” Brawn stated. “There are already a number of good issues in F1.
“I occur to suppose the present qualifying spec is fairly good. Three-stage qualifying retains folks engaged for the entire time. It’s thrilling and it sometimes throws up just a few variables.
“We even have a gaggle of people that now give attention to attempting to make the tracks as attention-grabbing as attainable, so we don’t get tracks the place we are able to’t race correctly. Each current monitor has been assessed and we’ve got an enter into all new tracks to make sure nice racing.”
Having been closely concerned within the designing of the brand new technical rules for the 2022 season, Brawn says he’s happy that the brand new floor impact vehicles achieved the purpose of permitting drivers to run nearer to rivals than earlier than.
“It was an enormous thrill for me after I noticed the 2022 vehicles first race and we skilled two or three vehicles racing alongside one another – we hadn’t typically seen that earlier than,” he stated. “Now you may run onerous behind one other automotive for a number of laps with out points.”
Brawn believes that now’s the correct time for him to step down and permit others to organize for the subsequent main change to the facility unit method deliberate for 2026.
“Now could be the correct time for me to retire,” he stated. “We’ve achieved the majority of the work, and we’re in a consolidation interval now. There’s a brand new automotive coming in 2026, however that’s 4 years away, fairly distant for me, so it’s higher the subsequent group of individuals tackle that mantle. I imagine I’m leaving F1 in a fantastic place.
“I’ll now watch F1 from my couch, cheering and cursing as an F1 fan, happy that the game is in a implausible place and has such a implausible future.”
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