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F1 series to award serious championship points for special Sprint qualifying races at three events in 2022.
Formula 1 on Monday announced a revised points structure and locations for Sprint qualifying races in 2022.
Sprint was introduced in 2021 at three events—Britain’s Silverstone, Italy’s Monza and Brazil’s Interlagos—with a 100 km race on Saturday used to set the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix. The grid for the Saturday Sprint is determined by a qualifying session on Friday.
There were proposals for Sprint to run at six events in 2022, but arguments over its associated finances meant an agreement could not be reached. Instead Sprint stays at three rounds, but with a couple of different locations and with a greater incentive for drivers to scrap for position on a Saturday.
Emilia Romagna’s Imola, Austria’s Red Bull Ring and Brazil’s Interlagos will be the venues for Sprint in 2022.
While in 2021, only the top three in Sprint received points (3-2-1), this year the top eight (8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1) will have points added to their championship points season total. That means for a perfect weekend on a Sprint weekend, a driver could collect a maximum of 34 points (25 for race win, one for fastest lap of the race, eight for winning the Sprint qualifying race. That could amount to quite a haul, considering F1’s 2021 title was decided by just eight points.
Formula 1 also confirmed that on Sprint weekends, the honor of pole position will be officially awarded to the driver who tops qualifying prior to the Sprint race rather than whoever wins the Sprint race.
