Headline: Sainz says F1 sprints are giving away Sundays — and wants the format shaken, not stirred
Carlos Sainz isn’t buying the Sprint status quo. The Williams driver — and GPDA director — rolled into Austin with a simple gripe about Formula 1’s short-form Saturday show: it’s spoiling the grand prix.
“I’m not a big fan right now because it unveils what the first stint of Sunday is gonna be like,” Sainz said ahead of the United States Grand Prix at COTA, which hosts the first Sprint since Spa and one of only three in the final six rounds. “Qualifying is almost the same, and Sunday is almost the first stint. Maybe with a lighter car, but still the same tyre.”
It’s not the familiar anti-Sprint drumbeat. Sainz isn’t arguing against the concept. He’s arguing against the format. The current layout, he says, peels back the curtain too far and too soon. And if the aim is to make the weekend more compelling, then lean into unpredictability — don’t burn it off on Saturday.
One idea he’s keen to try is straightforward and, crucially, practical: mandate soft tyres for the Sprint.
“At a lot of tracks, we never use the soft for the first stint,” he said. “It would be an easy, short-term solution… we’re basically throwing softs away after one lap in quali at many races. Put everyone on a high-deg tyre and it changes the Sprint without giving away Sunday.”
Would that single tweak be enough? Probably not, he admits. Sainz thinks the Sprint should be the sandbox where F1 actually experiments — not just with tyre rules, but with the format itself.
He floated a couple of knobs to twist:
– A “superpole” style shootout for SQ3 to create a different qualifying rhythm.
– A cautious openness to reverse grids — not a fan in principle, but not opposed to a trial if the goal is learning, not locking in a gimmick.
“Keep trying different things,” Sainz said. “If it works, great. If it doesn’t, don’t be scared to put it in the bin and try something else.”
That last line is the point. Formula 1 has been edging and trimming the Sprint format since it landed in 2021, and Stefano Domenicali has been clear he wants more of them replacing Friday practice — promoters love the ticket value, broadcasters love the content, and plenty of fans enjoy a meaningful session on each day. Liberty’s MotoGP runs a sprint at every round; F1’s not there, but the direction of travel is obvious.
Sainz’s concern isn’t volume, it’s value. If the Sprint shows everybody exactly what a first stint looks like — tyre behaviour, race pace spread, track position dynamics — then you lose one of the great unknowns that make lap one through lap 15 on Sunday so good. And with teams already starved of practice time on Sprint weekends, drivers naturally want the format to work for them as much as it does for the show.
He was also asked about venues pencilled in for 2026 Sprints, such as Singapore, Zandvoort and Montreal. Maybe not the obvious slam dunks, Sainz said, but weather and chaos have a way of rewriting expectations. A shower at the right moment and you’ve got the best Sprint you’ve ever seen.
The headline, though, is that Sainz isn’t trying to slam the door on the concept. He’s trying to kick it open. Mandate softs on Saturday. Play with the quali format. Try a reverse grid if you must. Just stop giving away Sunday.
It’s an argument that lands because it comes from both sides of his job: a driver who wants fewer knowns heading into lights out, and a GPDA voice looking at the fan experience with a long lens. The sweet spot is a Sprint that adds intrigue without duplicating the main event.
We’ll see if anyone bites. For now, Austin sets the stage. The cars will roll out on Saturday, and we’ll learn — again — how much of Sunday they’re about to tell us. If Sainz gets his way, next year we won’t know quite so much. And that might be exactly the point.
