Verstappen not buying F1’s “shorter race” fix: “Sport needs time to breathe”
Max Verstappen isn’t here for quick fixes. As Formula 1 floats another round of format tweaks aimed at keeping eyeballs from wandering — this time the notion of trimming grand prix distances — the three-time World Champion pushed back at Monza, arguing the race is the one part of a weekend that shouldn’t be put on a diet.
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has suggested a busier calendar of Sprint weekends, even reversing grids in some form, and, crucially, cutting race distance to sharpen the product for younger audiences. In Formula 1, full-distance grands prix have long run to roughly 305km (with Monaco the outlier at about 260km). That’s been a hard line for decades. Domenicali’s point is clear enough: modern attention spans don’t always meet classic race lengths.
Verstappen doesn’t see the upsides.
“No,” he said when asked if he was part of a supposed majority in favor of shorter races. “You all know, of course, how I think about sprint races, but the length of the race, I think it’s fine.”
The Dutchman’s argument isn’t really about nostalgia; it’s about rhythm. An hour and a half, sometimes nudging two, is where strategy breathes, where tires fade, where a storyline turns on a Safety Car or a stubborn DRS train. Make every race a 60-minute highlight reel and you risk losing the slow-burn tension that only long green-flag runs deliver.
“In other sports as well, sometimes you have an exciting game, sometimes it’s absolutely boring and you fall asleep. That’s sport for you,” Verstappen said. “You cannot always make it exciting, because if it’s always exciting, it becomes boring too. It always needs to be a surprise.”
That line cuts to the core of F1’s current identity tug-of-war. The series wants to entertain — it must — but it’s still a championship, not a travelling show. Verstappen’s view is that the best way to juice the spectacle isn’t to meddle with the distance; it’s to close the field.
“I’m probably more of a traditional guy. I think it’s more important that all the teams are closer, because then you get more racing anyway,” he said. “If you take McLaren out of it, it is not too bad. It’s just that the following with these cars, again, is becoming a bit of a problem, so that’s why sometimes you are stuck again in a DRS train or whatever.”
The subtext there: if you don’t like processions, don’t shorten the race — fix the cars and the competitive spread. Verstappen has long been lukewarm at best on Sprints, arguing they dilute the build to Sunday. He hasn’t softened much. Asked if he can see any positives to the proposed changes, he smiled: “Yes, I see the positives – people are making more money.”
He did acknowledge why the idea keeps resurfacing: fans pay to see action, not long, low-drama practice runs.
“I can understand, of course, when fans come to the track, it’s more exciting to see cars race than just lap around in practice,” he said. “For us, it’s still very important to have practice, but I understand from a fan’s point of view that can be a bit boring. F1 has been like this since the ’50s. I understand that sports evolve and stuff like that, but we shouldn’t go too crazy. I think a sprint race is already, from my side, crazy enough.”
It’s worth noting that Verstappen isn’t alone in his skepticism, though the paddock is split. Some drivers are open to shorter races, particularly if the format adds jeopardy without turning Sundays into a lottery. Others fear that cutting distance compresses strategy into a single pit window and hands even more power to track position and aero.
Domenicali’s shopping list — more Sprints, possible reverse-grid elements, fewer practice sessions and now reduced race mileage — is born from a real problem: keeping a rapidly globalizing audience engaged over record-breaking calendars. But at the sharp end of the grid, the argument remains that F1’s best Sundays are built on tension, not interruption, and tension needs time.
Strip it back and Verstappen’s stance is simple. Keep the races long. Make the cars race better. And if the sport wants more fireworks, light the fuse in the engineering room, not in race control.
