“Wrong” that F1 pole will be awarded to sprint race winner - Vettel

F1 will trial its new sprint format for the first time at this weekend's British Grand Prix at Silverstone, with the finishing order deciding the grid for Sunday’s grand prix. The usual qualifying session will instead take place on Friday evening and will determine the starting positions for the sprint race on Saturday.

But Vettel is not a fan that pole will be officially credited to the winner of the sprint race, as opposed to the driver who ends up fastest in qualifying.

“I think that’s wrong,” the Aston Martin driver said. “Pole is the fastest lap time achieved in qualifying, so it gets all a bit confusing.

“Obviously it depends, if this is a one-off, it doesn’t do much harm but if we end up doing 10 sprint races next year or in the future, I just think it’s a bit weird.

“Pole position should go to the guy who is fastest on one lap. It’s a new discipline. They didn’t have it 50 years ago and now they have it. So you add a new column to the statistics.”

Despite being something of an F1 traditionalist, Vettel is generally in favour of the idea of trying out a new format.

“I’m fairly open because it is what it is - it won’t change no matter what we say,” he added. “Maybe it’s really good, so I think generally it’s fine to be open about it.

“It will be interesting to see if people will like it or not. I think the main event always has to be Sunday otherwise there’s no point hanging around until Sunday we can just go home or finish the weekend Saturday night.

“We’ll see how it goes, I think it’s the first time so let’s give it a go.”

And the four-time world champion thinks it will be interesting to see how the drivers approach the sprint race.

“We’ll need to be straight on it right from the start and it should be exciting,” Vettel said. “It’s something new, and that is always exciting. We’ll see how it turns out. Lots of unknowns but we’ll give it a go. 

“Ideally you take the opportunity on lap one to make up some positions and sometimes it works your way, sometimes it doesn’t. I think the key is that you finish the race, otherwise you finish last for Sunday."