All F1 Grands Prix occasions have three distinctive classes: follow, grid-setting qualifying and the race itself.
From their debut three years in the past, although, dash weekends launched a brand new session: a shortened “dash” across the circuit that provided each grid setting and World Championship factors. As an alternative of qualifying Saturday and racing Sunday, drivers would merely dash Saturday, and the outcomes of the dash would set the grid for Sunday’s race.
Dash races are controversial amongst F1 followers. Some adore the extra content material they supply whereas others complain that they muddle race weekends with meaningless occasions. In spite of everything, if “sprints” are all about discovering the quickest automobile, would not the race discover it already?
F1 took that suggestions to coronary heart and adjusted round dash weekends for 2023. This is a breakdown of the large adjustments to look out for this weekend in Azerbaijan:
Two qualifying classes. Qualifying, or “qualy” in F1 parlance, is a quick, wild, asynchronous three-part timed shootout, and it is at all times a fan favourite, so F1’s giving us extra of it. As an alternative of qualifying for the dash and utilizing its ending order for the race grid, the drivers will now qualify twice: as soon as for the dash and as soon as for the race itself. F1 is asking dash qualifying a “dash shoot-out,”and it is requiring drivers to make use of the identical tires to maintain issues honest — mediums for the primary two runs and softs for the third.
Restricted follow. Two qualy classes are nice, however there’s solely a lot time in a weekend, so F1 is eradicating follow classes in favor of aggressive racing. That is nice for followers however problematic for drivers, as they leverage each second of follow to check setups, gas masses, methods and tires. We might even see less-than-perfect racing in Azerbaijan because of this alteration.
Grid penalty shuffles. If a driver replaces a key automobile half or commits an offense in opposition to one other driver, he’s typically required to take a grid penalty and begin behind the pack within the race. For dash weekends like this one in Azerbaijan, something that occurs through the dash shoot-out will solely have an effect on the dash. All different infringements will likely be utilized to the race itself.
With that in thoughts, this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix schedule will seem like this:
Friday:Â Follow, race qualifying
Saturday:Â Dash shoot-out, dash
Sunday:Â Race
Nonetheless confused? Don’t be concerned — you are not alone. However with future dash weekends scheduled in Austria, Belgium, Qatar, Austin and Brazil, there will likely be loads of alternatives for everybody to get the hold of it.
