Formula 1 has revealed the venues today that will host the six F1 Sprint Events during the 2023 campaign, a record number after increasing it from three during the 2021 and 2022 FIA Formula 1 seasons.
An F1 Sprint event takes place on a Saturday, meaning qualifying is moved to Friday with an hour practice session being dropped. Friday’s qualifying determines the grid for the sprint race, which involves a one-hundred kilometre race to determine the grid for the traditional Sunday race.
Next year’s Sprints races will be held in Azerbaijan (Baku Street Circuit), Austria (Red Bull Ring), Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps), Qatar (Losail Circuit), the United States (Circuit of The Americas) and São Paulo (Interlagos).
The Austrian Grand Prix and São Paulo Grand Prix will remain as sprint races from previous seasons, seeing the Italian Grand Prix dropped as a sprint event.
The first sprint of the year will be in Azerbaijan with the exciting Baku Street Circuit holding host to what will be a thrilling weekend. The season will also see the legendary Belgian Grand Prix hosted at Spa-Francorchamps become a Sprint weekend for the first time. The two other new tracks to host the format will be the returning Qatar Grand Prix and the United States Grand Prix.
Formula 1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali is delighted with the increase of the amount of Sprint races and hopes the action will excite the fans.
“We have seen a hugely positive reaction to the F1 Sprint events during the first two years of its running, and we can’t wait to bring even more action to fans with six events next year, including our first US F1 Sprint in Austin.
“The introduction of the F1 Sprint has created a race weekend that includes three days of competitive racing action and brings more entertainment to fans of the sport as well as additional value for key stakeholders including teams, broadcasters, partners, and host venues.”
President of the FIA, Mohammed Ben Sulayem also commented on the change.
“Following strong collaboration between the FIA and FOM, and the approval of the World Motor Sport Council, we are pleased to reveal the six events for Sprints for the 2023 season. We look forward to this exciting addition to the calendar.”
