By: Chris A
ITALIA!!! This race is one of two Italian Grand Prixes this year, most people call it Imola for short, Emilia Romagna Grand Prix to be more accurate, and FORMULA 1 ROLEX GRAN PREMIO DEL MADE IN ITALY E DELL’EMILIA-ROMAGNA 2022 if you want to be that fuckin’ guy. More importantly though it’s SPRINT week!! I’m excited as ever for the first Sprint race of the year especially with the additional changes to the format. Don’t know what a sprint race week is? The FIA added Sprints to the calendar last year and it was awesome. We are set to have three this year, same as last year, and this weekend is the first of the three.
The Sprint format allows for a mini race on Saturday before the Sunday Grand Prix and shifts the qualifying session to Friday. Last year only the top 3 positions received any points and the finishing order of the Sprint determined starting positions for the Sunday race. Due to the lack of points, a lot of drivers kept it fairly safe for the Sprint race because if you took any major risks you could wreck your car and the rest of your weekend before the race even started. This year they have changed the incentives. The Top 8 positions will be receiving points which should lead to a more competitive Sprint with more points on the table. The finishing order of the Sprint also determines the starting line up on the Grid for Sunday’s race same as before. There is a difference with Pole position being determined from the qualifying results rather than the Sprint results, but this will be a change in title only rather than affected starting position.
So you can have the fastest time in qualifying, be awarded pole position for the record books, but then come in 5th during the Sprint and you’ll be starting from 5th on the grid Sunday. Make sense?
Anyway now that’s out of the way we are headed to Italy for the first of two Italian races. The current standings for the top 10 are:
I don’t think anyone would have predicted the year playing out as it as thus far. This weekend we will see if Redbull has made any reliability progress, if Mclaren maintains their advancements, if Haas has truly dropped the ball, if Mercedes continue to improve and more. So tune in for Qualifying tomorrow Friday at 10AM CT, 11AM ET, Saturday for the Sprint at 9:30AM CT, 10:30AM ET, and Sunday for the race at 8:00 CT, 9:00AM ET. Lets GOOO!!
