The International Automobile Federation (FIA) announced that the Formula 1 calendar for 2022 will only have three sprint qualifying races, half of what the body wanted, in a decision made after a meeting with F1 and the teams.
Two months after the title of the Dutchman Max Verstappen, the FIA will publish “in the next few days” a list of “structural changes” after the investigation of the events that occurred in the last Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi, in which the British Lewis Hamilton lost the title after controversial decisions by the race management.
Until then, F1 is making progress on other fronts. Tested three times in 2021, the formation of the Grand Prix starting grid based on a qualifying sprint race will be a formula that will be used again on three weekends in 2022: Emilia-Romagna (April 24), Austria (July 10) and Brazil (November 13).
The FIA intended to increase this type of test to six, but finally backed down due to “pressure” from the teams for financial reasons.
What will change is the number of points for the championship that will be distributed in these sprint races (of a 100 km route): from 8 to the first classified to one for the eighth, when in 2021 only the first three received points. AFP