Hamilton: Two-day weekend would work better for F1 sprint format

F1 is experimenting with a new weekend format at the British Grand Prix, with qualifying moved to Friday after a sole hour-long practice, before a 17-lap sprint race took place on Saturday to set the grid for Sunday’s grand prix.

While Hamilton generally liked the new format, especially qualifying on Friday evening, the seven-time world champion reckons it only needs to held over a two-day event.

“Yesterday was enjoyable with the way it was set up with the one session and then straight into qualifying,” Hamilton said after sprint qualifying on Saturday.

“In my opinion, it only needs to be a Saturday and Sunday weekend. That way we have one whole day less, 23 days actually less of driving these cars around the track. Obviously that would be better in terms of going more green.

“It’s so difficult for us to pass and unfortunately with these cars you need pitstops and strategy to help sometimes, otherwise it’s so hard to get close.

“I think the fans enjoyed it, from what we saw on the parade laps. It’s always nice doing more races that’s for sure, but tomorrow we’ve only got one event.

“It’s almost like they should almost do the sprint race on the Sunday and the race, because they’ll be a lot of sitting around for people tomorrow.”

Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas said he enjoyed the Friday format more than Saturday’s schedule.

“If I would choose which I enjoyed more, I would say Friday,” the Finn said. “I really enjoyed qualifying and that feeling of pushing the car to the limit on a single lap.

“Obviously was a nice thing to try and get another start, so, in the same lines as Lewis, I maybe enjoyed yesterday a bit more. 

“But it’s still good fun, you know, racing with these cars against the best drivers on this amazing track, in front of all the fans. It’s nice but I’m just already looking forward to tomorrow, for the main event.”

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen admitted it felt “a bit odd” to have claimed pole position by winning the sprint race, rather than by setting the fastest lap in qualifying.

“Friday didn’t feel more enjoyable because for me, personally, qualifying is where you should get pole position, and of course Lewis was ahead there,” he explained.

“You jump out of the car and it does mean something, but not the real hype that I nailed the lap and I put it on pole or whatever.

“When I crossed the line today after this race and they were like, ‘yeah, great job, pole position’, it feels a bit like… ‘I did one-third of the race distance’ and then to hear you did pole position for tomorrow, it’s a bit odd.”