F1 2023 - Round 4: Azerbaijan

I looked yesterday evening and couldn't find actual confirmation yet either. Even Sky were advertising the "old" format during the soccer yesterday. Hopefully will be settled today.

I would like to see the qualy be for the race, like F2, and then reverse grid the top 8 for the sprint. Keeps things interesting.

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It was something that I was supposed to put in a different thread so nothing to worry about.

This is it. Some teams are going for a major upgrade in one go and others were hoping for small upgrades each week. In both cases they had a month to bring upgrades to this race. It will be interesting to see if any teams make a big step (except red bull)

Order of the weekend confirmed on the F1 App.

Edit: @dulpit says they're voting on the order of the weekend later today so this is only provisional for now.

So happy this is back, looking forward to seeing if Mclaren actually did anything as they promised they would have their upgrades by Azerbaijan.

Bit cynical. I'd imagine they also pick local events for sensible logistical reasons and knowledge of the lacal are.

I don’t know if they have many climate activists in Azerbaijan. I don't hear about them anyway. We'll find out over the weekend.

With the amount of upgrades expected, it weirdly feels like starting the season again!

McLaren had been talking about Baku upgrades since Bahrain so it’ll be very interesting to see how they are looking. Ferrari too, they’ve looked mediocre at best so far.

Could see Checo winning if he can get the edge in quali(big ask!), he likes a street circuit. But it will probably be Max.

Jail in UK or Germany unlikely

Beaten up in custody in Baku highly likely.

What is the point of this new format? They say the Friday qualifying session will determine the grid for the main race on Sunday rather than previously when quali determined the order for the sprint the outcome of which determined the grid for Sunday.

Am I interpreting the article correctly?

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If people record it and watching later, so what? I imagine they calculate it in terms of eyeballs*minutes watched. They've created more significant content so they're more likely to get more minutes viewed over the weekend than normal. I imagine viewership will be higher for Friday quali than it ever would be for FP2, for example. And spring quali will get more than FP3. The sprint will probably be similar to regular quali, so no imagine they're winning over the course of the weekend.

I never get this argument. The whole sport is a gimmick. It's entertainment to the viewer. It's a business to the people involved hit for the viewer, it's just entertainment. Think of all the gimmicks that were included in the sport that you probably take for granted. The grid walk being a pretry obvious one. The press conferences and podium celebrations are pretry obvious too. DRS is a more recent gimmick that has li ened the sport up a lot. The more Liberal safety car use recently to bunch the cars up is probably a pretry blatant gimmick. All those things are purely in the name of entertainment for the viewer. In that sense, sprints are a gimmick. They're entertaining.

Wait until after the sprint race and you'll see posters actually say the sprint race was pretty exciting, but they don't like it.

If people don't watch F1 for entertainment, then what do they watch it for?

Ha. You think it's supposed to be a sport and not entertainment? That's shockingly naive.

It's a mix of sport, entertainment and business. To ignore any of those 3 aspects would kill it entirely.

Yeah this time it seems disorganised. But f1 fans almost always hate changes. Then they become used to them and hate any changes from the new norm.

I just don't worry about the changes. They happen and if they work. They tend to keep them. If they don't work they tend to change them back.

F1 has loads of changes because it's a totally made up sport. There's nothing natural about it. Running 100m as fast as you can is organic and pretty simple and doesn't need many big changes over time. F1 is a completely contrived sport, designed to entertain. It has to change to stay relevant.

The typical F1 fan's reaction is to hate the proposed change and assume it will be terrible. Then when it's not terrible, they still hate it. Then they become used to it, start to enjoy it and forget ever hating it. They just move on to hating any new changes. It's always the way.

I think it is a bit harsh to call Formula 1 a gimmick over all, it is a sport and sets a pretty high bar engineering wise. It is entertainment of course, and yes there have been certain things introduced to change it up, DRS being the main one. I don't think Sprints add anything to the overall spectacle, yes you might get the odd good one which usually happens when a car is out of place or the weather plays a role, that happens in any race though.

The sport is trying at least, I will give them that. I might be a purist in that regard and I am fine with that, as long as there are cars on the track then I am happy, I just don't like changing the format for the sake of it. I don't see the point.

I watch it to be entertained of course, but not in the same way I play the PlayStation or watch a movie. It is a sporting event and a high standard of motorsports with the best of the best etc, seeing them compete alone is entertaining as I generally love motorsports overall. I would watch one car drive alone if I could, but of course F1 is aiming now at the American market more, and they need that extra bit to keep them zoned in, like NASCAR etc.

Just on the point of a "natural" or "organic" sport, are there any examples you have of a major sport that are what you describe? The only time I watch a 100m sprint is once every 4 years.

These changes are nothing like the introduction of the Halo, or other such changes that contribute to safety and/or race performance.

This is a pure money grab with very little justification from a sporting point of view. It's like soccer introducing a penalty shoot-out on the day before a game.. It's absolute rubbish, and stupid things like that will absolutely turn the core fanbase off the sport.

Yeah I don't watch much athletics either. I haven't thought about it in terms of the size of sports, to be honest.

F1 has more rule changes than the average sport. There was a major rules overhaul last year, for example. But the main thing is thsy if people aren't entertained by the sprint races then they won't watch and F1 will drop the idea.

It is utter nonsense to have race quali on a Friday at a time when the majority of fans will be in work.

I get wanting to make an event out of the weekend but it’s a brutal way to do it. Quali should be the main event on the Saturday.

Having to carve out time for sprint qualifying makes the entire weekend awkward, they should just use the finishing positions of the previous GP as the grid. Then it could be P1 & Sprint on Friday, P2 & Quali on Sat, GP on Sunday.