Your guide to the Sprint Weekend

Originally introduced in 2021, the Sprint is designed to offer fans more competitive track action, featuring an extra Qualifying session and a 100km (62-mile) race in place of practice. The Saturday Sprint is one-third of the distance of a Grand Prix and lasts for approximately half an hour.

As last year, there are six events that will host a Sprint in 2025: Shanghai, Miami, Belgium, Austin, São Paulo and Qatar. Tracks are chosen based on their overtaking potential, as drivers are encouraged to race flat-out to the chequered flag. The distance of the Sprint has been calculated to be equivalent to a stint on one set of tyres and features no mandatory pit stops.

In 2024, the Sprint format was revised to streamline the timetable across the Grand Prix weekend. Sprint Qualifying (formerly known as the Shootout) now takes place on Friday afternoon with the shorter-distance race taking place on Saturday morning. Qualifying for the main event will continue in its usual Saturday afternoon slot, with the Grand Prix on Sunday.

With just the one practice session to setup their cars, it means there is extra pressure on all the teams to utilise the one-hour FP1 on Friday morning. Both FP2 and FP3 sessions make way for the competitive action.

Sprint Qualifying on Friday afternoon follows a similar format to traditional Qualifying, with five drivers eliminated at each stage, but with a shorter time for each session to increase the jeopardy. The three stages, SQ1, SQ2 and SQ3 last 12 minutes, 10 minutes and just eight minutes respectively. Medium compound tyres are mandatory for the first two sessions, while softs must be used for SQ3.

Originally, the result of the shorter-format Sprint race formed the grid for the main event and only handed out points for the top three. This often-discouraged drivers from taking risks, as any retirement would place them at the back of the grid for the Grand Prix itself. When the Sprint was expanded to six events in 2023, it became a standalone feature of the weekend with points now awarded, eight down to one, to the top eight finishers. There are no points for fastest lap.

While the Sprint no longer determines the grid for the Grand Prix, it can still have an influence on the outcome of the weekend. For example, drivers can still pick up a grid penalty for any on-track misdemeanour, which they would have to serve in Sunday’s race. That’s why Sprint weekends offer unmissable action across all three days.