Dash races are a bit like marmite: you both love them otherwise you hate them and they’ll at all times divide opinion throughout the System 1 paddock.
Max Verstappen has most likely been essentially the most vocal because the four-time world champion, who has essentially the most dash victories with 12, beforehand stated he will get “no satisfaction” from successful them.
Lance Stroll, in the meantime, revealed “I just like the dash weekends” after the subject was put to him forward of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. This comes after the 2026 dash calendar was introduced on Tuesday, when it was revealed the variety of half-distance races will stay at six per yr because it has been since 2023.
The dash idea was launched in 2021 as a method of shaking up the grid and inspiring ticket gross sales earlier within the grand prix weekend. It began off with simply three in a season, however the quantity has clearly since doubled and there may be even discuss of accelerating it to 10 come 2027.
“I’ve to say that other than some older die-hard followers, everybody desires dash weekends,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali stated. “Promoters push for this format and now the drivers have an interest as nicely.”
However are they? Effectively, Stroll actually is as he thinks “each time you get within the automobile, there’s one thing to battle for”. He’s after all referring to the truth that dash weekends imply there are extra aggressive classes with only one apply outing, versus three at a daily spherical.
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls Workforce, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing
Photograph by: Alexander Nemenov / AFP through Getty Pictures
“It makes the weekends very thrilling for the groups, for the drivers, for the followers watching, too,” added the Aston Martin driver. “It is much more motion over the three days.”
An identical view is held by Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who relishes the considered leaping straight from free apply into dash race qualifying.
“Dash weekends are fairly thrilling,” stated the 19-year-old, who claimed pole for this yr’s Miami dash. “As a driver it’s a problem since you go from free apply straight into qualifying and the challenges are the methods to attempt to get to the restrict and perceive how a lot you possibly can push.”
“So it is good enjoyable,” he added. “I have been having fun with the dash weekends this yr – positively would not thoughts having extra of these sooner or later.”
Present championship chief Oscar Piastri was one other driver in Baku to say “including extra sprints will not be essentially a nasty thought”, however there are some who oppose it. Haas racer Esteban Ocon, for instance, received fairly philosophical in regards to the debate.
“We live now in a shopper world the place we would like increasingly, we would like extra races,” stated the F1 veteran.
Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Workforce
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / System 1 through Getty Pictures
“Once we watch Wednesday on Netflix, we do not wish to wait 10 days for the second a part of the season. However when it is accomplished, we actually rapidly neglect issues and we go on to the subsequent one, as a result of we’ve got a lot content material to observe.
“It is the identical factor for sports activities, it is the identical factor for something now as a result of we’ve got the selection, we’ve got a variety of leisure.
“However I bear in mind once I was younger and I used to be anticipating a lot the subsequent race and it was really fairly lengthy to attend for it. It was an enormous spotlight of my week when Sunday was the grand prix.
“Now we already race virtually each week and to have a dash on high, sure, it is much more content material, for certain we’ll have extra views as a result of we’re racing on Saturday, however I imagine it is most likely a bit an excessive amount of.
“I do not thoughts racing extra. I might at all times be completely happy to race extra however, I form of want to have that expectation, constructing as much as the grand prix and having fun with what you are watching.”
The 29-year-old Haas driver makes a strong level as a result of an excessive amount of content material can even have a unfavourable impression and with 24 rounds on the calendar, drivers are already beginning to really feel the restrict. It may additionally result in followers switching off given the quantity of motion to observe and Charles Leclerc echoed Ocon’s ideas.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lando Norris, McLaren, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing
Photograph by: Joe Portlock / LAT Pictures through Getty Pictures
“My private opinion is that I feel the quantity of dash races we’ve got in the intervening time is sweet sufficient and I wouldn’t wish to go greater than that,” stated the Ferrari driver.
Dash occasions are a part of a protracted debate about how to boost grand prix weekends, which rose to the floor once more not too long ago when Domenicali proposed the thought of shorter races – and even reverse grid ideas.
The reversed grid thought retains developing, however how would it not work? Presently F2, for example, holds two races per weekend and the Saturday contest is a dash occasion the place the order of the highest 10 from qualifying is flipped – but Piastri thinks that shouldn’t make its means as much as F1.
“It’s a nasty thought,” stated Piastri, who received each the F2 and F3 titles. “Additionally simply from a purely sporting and aggressive facet of issues, the very last thing we would like as a sport is issues being determined or vital outcomes being had from reverse grid races.
“In F2 and F3 I feel it really works. In System 2 and System 3 you are form of showcasing your self to why try to be in System 1 and I feel that is a means of showcasing sure issues.”
It appeared as if the grid was united in its view of reverse grids, with Ocon claiming “I feel that’s fairly synthetic”.
Ayao Komatsu, Haas F1 Workforce
Photograph by: Simon Galloway / LAT Pictures through Getty Pictures
“System 1 needs to be the pure form of racing that we glance out for after we have been younger,” he added. “It needs to be the quickest that wins and the strongest workforce that wins. Having a reverse grid, sure, once more, it is extra present, however it could be synthetic.”
His boss Ayao Komatsu added: “I am not a fan of reverse grid. I do not suppose it is proper for System 1. It is too synthetic. Too gimmicky, simply synthetic, actually. It is not likely racing for me.”
That appears to be the important thing concern: how “synthetic” are reverse grids? Is F1 leisure or is it a stay sport? Leclerc additionally argued that it’s not throughout the “DNA” of the championship, as a result of why reward failure by inserting a lower-placed driver on pole?
Domenicali appears intent on shaking up the weekend format however proper now, the grid is united in wanting to maintain reverse grids as a hypothetical situation.
