The first qualifying sprint race for pole position starts today at the British GP.
This is a great idea. For those that think F1 is long and boring this may change your mind.

F1 Sprint
A fast and furious single stint race

Saturday afternoon brings the first F1 Sprint – a 100km dash, which based on the length of the Silverstone track will be 17 laps and it’ll last around 25-30 minutes.

It is on today at 4.30pm.
https://www.formula1.com/en/racing/2021/Great_Britain.html

I enjoy Formula 1, I can't see the sprint adding anything for me, overtaking for most cars is going to be limited, loads of the drivers said they enjoyed it butt many also used words like "I managed to keep up with the car in front", hardly aspirational racing.

However increased race-track spectator experience might help some of the racing circuits that have been struggling financially, quite a few UK racing circuits have closed or are closing recently, something that is happening worldwide.

I don't know how the Americans can sit through hours of Nascar rather than have F1, different ethics on safety?

Hamilton-Verstappen on Sunday, Verstappen tapped (or tried to tap) Hamilton's tyres unnecessarily on the Wellington Straight just before Brooklands trying to scare Hamilton off (Verstappen's normal strategy against Hamilton), Hamilton didn't back off later.

You will notice corporate F1 haven't released all the camera angles (only two released out, there are more) as they prefer the money making controversy to continue. F1 is gradually becoming the WWE of the racing world, I wonder how much stage management goes on and at what level.

Mentioning safety, the crazy helicopter incident was tremendously dangerous https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...r-at-british-gp.1705704955558424644.html

More racing is a plus for me. I think the sprint race is just short enough to not get boring for some people who don't like the long race.

Regarding the stage management, yes that can happen in the 1 team giving team orders between the drivers, but I can't see that happening in a live race between 2 teams. The drivers are too selfish to follow such orders.

Its difficult to tell, when you have one team/driver dominant for too many years it starts to affect viewing figures and revenue.

Like WWE, at the end of the day they are doing this for money through various means, collective strategy is going to increase income.

I think it interesting that Porsche have stayed well clear of F1, I suspect that they believe that if they are in F1 and don't come first then that can only damage their reputation eg a Mercedes consistently beating a Porsche has got to be damaging to Porsche's image.

From a physics point of view ......

One thing I have always been suspicious of is driving over small kerb bumpers (or to a lesser degree smooth raised kerbs), if you are running at the limits of grip, something like a kerb bumper has got to reduce your overall grip considerably. My conclusion is that they aren't driving anywhere near the limits of grip otherwise they would be forced to stay on the tarmac. Is it showmanship rather than speed?

If they aren't running near the limits of grip, how are their lap times so consistent? Other sports with similar grip changes eg downhill skiing have much less consistency, you hit any rough and you've lost a lot of time.

I would also think that those kerbs would slow them down, but if they did, they would steer clear of them. You see it many times that the ones using the kerbs get through the corners quicker, being able to accelerate sooner than the ones that stick to the track, and not forgetting cutting the corners as well.

After yesterdays decisions by the race director, Michael Masi, I'd have to agree it was like WWE.

I was not happy. Not because Hamilton didn't win, but because Masi seemed to make up the rules on the fly.
If he wanted a race, he should have red flagged it when Latifi crashed. That would have been a fair race for the last 4 laps.

The rules are quite clear on what the race director can and cannot do, during the fracas on the last lap Masi exceeded his authority.

Rule 48.12 is binary about unlapping, either it happens in full or it doesn't happen at all.

Rule 48.13 is only about the Race Director's control over the Safety Car, not unlapping, rule 48.12 would have to be completed before the safety car can be withdrawn by the Race Director.

And despite all the supposed pre-race threats by officials, Verstappen virtually immediately forced Hamilton of the track (officially agreed), Verstappen received no penalty for this incident but perversely Hamilton did??? Why didn't Verstappen get at least a 5 second penalty? Not forgetting that the 5 second penalty is relative to the whole grid, not just one opponent, it might have taken Verstappen off the podium altogether.

Its become a shot-shiw, I doubt I will watch it next season. Hit Liberty Media where it hurts - viewing figures.