Here's how Formula 1's first ever sprint qualifying will work

An attempt by the big bosses over at Formula 1 to spice up the track action and give the fans something exciting to watch across the entire race weekend.

It’s been used in lower Formulas before, but this weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone is the first time the format will be used in F1.

Should you need a top line summary, here is a quick distillation: practice, qualify for sprint race grid position, practice some more, sprint race to determine grid start, RACE.

The normal practice session starts on Friday morning, and teams are free to choose two sets of tyres to practice with. It’s only an hour long, as opposed to the normal 90-min practice.

The ‘normal’ qualifying shootout – the Q1/Q2/Q3 battle you’re used to seeing on Saturday afternoon – will now run Friday afternoon. And each team can only use soft tyres for this session. Which means it’ll be quick.

How the drivers finish in this new Friday qualy session determines where they’ll start in Saturday’s sprint session.

A second practice session takes place in the morning – again, another hour – with one set of tyres for the teams to choose from.

And here’s where the big change enters the stage: on Saturday afternoon, everyone goes racing! Using the order the drivers qualified in on Friday, the lights will go green and all of them go flat out in order to determine where they’ll start the proper race on Sunday. Teams can choose from two sets of tyres, but crucially there’s no requirement to actually pit at all.

The sprint sessions are run over 62 miles (100km). A lap of Silverstone is 3.6 miles, so you’re looking at 17 laps come Saturday. Last year, Verstappen banked a 1m 27s lap during the race, so you’re looking at just over 25 minutes for the entire session.

Yes, but only the top three drivers. First place in the sprint race (and therefore pole position) nets three world championship points, second place gets two points, and third place scores one championship point.

If you’re thinking, ‘well what’s the point of all that?’ remember that in 2007, Lewis Hamilton missed out on a rookie drivers’ championship win by one solitary point. You don't need reminding where he'd stand in the numbers game if he'd got that 2007 title.

Teams will get three sets of wet tyres and four sets of intermediates at the start of the event. If the first practice or Friday qualifying are wet, they’ll get an extra set of intermediates, but will have to return a used set of inters before the sprint session.

If the sprint session is wet, teams can return a used set of wets or inters, replaced with a new set of intermediates.

Let’s move on before we lose the rest of the room.

Good question. These will be in force from the start of Friday qualifying, meaning teams can’t change major components. It’s so that they don’t build special ‘qualifying’ cars, and to ensure Saturday morning’s practice is actually useful.

Once the sprint session begins, a few changes are permitted, including altering the weight distribution, and adjusting the engine and gearbox cooling through engine cover outlets and louvres, but only if the FIA-approved weather provider detects a 10C difference in weather one hour before the qualifying and sprint sessions begin.

Yeah, welcome to Formula 1.

Either Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen will win.

We would say ‘haha only kidding, the grand prix is run as normal’, but… well, y’know.