Why Ross Brawn is backing sprint qualifying: 'No strategy, no pitstops, just 30min of flat-out action'

“It’s a high tech sport. And it’s always evolved and always changed. And I don’t think we should be afraid of change. And if we do it in a properly constructed way, then we can have reasonable confidence that we’re going forward in a structured way, and not taking too much risk.”

Brawn points out that adding some excitement to what is now a dull Friday is one of the key aims of a sprint weekend.

“We looked at some of the historic things which had been tried, where you had two qualifyings, a qualifying on the Friday and the Saturday. We remember those days, and it was either the fastest time over the weekend, or your qualifying position on the Friday was added to your qualifying on a Saturday. And all sorts of stuff was tried to try and give action for the whole three days.

“And it was never terribly successful, because the fans found it frustrating that maybe they watched the fastest car on a Saturday afternoon go fastest, but it wasn’t on pole position. So part of this was to increase the action over the three days, and that helps promoters, helps the fans, helps teams. We just get more coverage for the weekend.

“I don’t believe we dilute anything. It gives the media a clearer focus on things happening. I’m sure on a Friday, you guys can talk about various aspects of what’s happened on a Friday, but it’s hard work, isn’t it? Whereas this is going to be clear content you can talk about.”

It took a lot of work to finalise the format, which is why the first event is in July. The FIA sporting regulations have been substantially adjusted, and the team managers have played a big role in stress testing them and addressing anomalies. The final details were only agreed in a meeting on Thursday in Austria.

One big issue that was discussed at a higher pay grade was the cost of accident damage. Given the tight restrictions imposed by the budget cap the top teams were concerned that an extra start and first lap would create more risk. An allowance has been made, and teams have also been given a suitable financial incentive to do the three extra sprints.

“There’s been a lot of work done by the teams, team managers, the FIA,” says Brawn. “We’ve been contributing to get all the little nuances sorted out for this event, because once you get into the rule book, you realise you’re at a completely new event into the rulebook.

“There’s been awful lot of work, and I have to compliment the teams, because they’ve been extremely constructive in evolving the new regulations.

Inevitably critics of the idea will suggest that F1 is perhaps trying too hard to appeal to a younger market – the short attention span theory.

“We’ve built our social media platform in the last three or four years from virtually nothing,” says Brawn. “And there’s no doubt that a lot of fans who are engaged through those mediums like short, sharp bites of action. That little two-lap sprint we had a couple of races ago [in Baku] was one of the highlights of the season for our fans. It was amazing.

“This is not quite so intense, but still captures that flavour of flat out, guys on the pit wall can’t do anything, there’s no strategy, there’s no pitstops, it’s just over half an hour of flat out action. Of course a driver could choose a soft tyre and have to manage it, but if he chooses a medium at Silverstone, he’ll be driving flat out the whole race.

“There’s all these nuances, but nobody knows, when you introduce something like this, nobody can say for sure. When we introduced the fastest lap point, I didn’t imagine for a moment it would have the engagement it’s ended up having. When we started Netflix lots of people thought, ‘Who is going to be interested in that?’

“And it’s one of the most successful documentaries, and it’s huge. You can’t always predict these things. So I think it’s just great that F1 is trialling it to see what response we get. And if it doesn’t work, we can step back and learn from it, and think about the next thing.”

So is there a concern that younger people are no longer interested in traditional sports, and that changes were needed?

“We’re always mindful of it,” Brawn admits. “There’s no doubt that we want to be forward-thinking. But we have huge, huge respect and commitment to our existing fans. So we don’t want to alienate anyone. And I think the great thing about this is it’s additive. I don’t see it being subtractive in any way.

“It’s so difficult to compare with other sports, because of their nature. But short format cricket increased the interest in test cricket. Test cricket was becoming very much a sort of specialist, for avid fans. But they’ve seen a stronger interest in test cricket as a result of the interest in short-format cricket. So maybe that isn’t something you can compare, but we don’t know yet. But it certainly does I think appeal to the fan who wants some short bite action.

“I think F1 can learn so much about this exercise, this initiative, in many ways”

“As I say, I think F1 can learn so much about this exercise, this initiative, in many ways. And in terms of the role of the commercial rights holder, the commitment of the teams to initiatives that we want to put forward, if we can make a success of this, and we can see what the next opportunities are.

“But again, the very clear message is this is for the fans. And then the benefits come once you engage the fans, and you increase engagement of fans with the type of content you give, and the amount of content you give.

“It’s a great sport. We’ve seen a fantastic year this year. And who wouldn’t want to see Max and Lewis going head to head in a 100kms race, with no other considerations? No one on the pit wall is going to mess it up, it’s just the two of them…”