F1, Frederic Vasseur stays with the Sprint Shootout

Frederic Vasseur defends the Sprint Shootout.

The first Sprint of the season was run last weekend in Baku, including the Sprint Shootout, the short qualifying sessions that establish the starting order for the sprint race.

The new format introduced by Formula 1’s top brass was not a big hit at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, although Frederic Vasseur thinks otherwise. “The fact that the race was not so exciting has nothing to do with the format,” the Ferrari team principal stressed at the end of the Azerbaijani GP. “For me the format was exciting because all sessions are important. With the old system it is true that PL2 could be a bit boring. If you look at the last few years, Baku has been really up and down: very often you have a DRS train, and if the first car in the train has a major top speed, you can do 200 laps that way and never have someone able to overtake. But on the other hand, even in Baku we’ve had very exciting races in the past and that has nothing to do with the format.”