The main bosses of the F1 teams ready to try the sprint races

The bosses of Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren, whose teams were Formula 1’s top three last year, gave their support to the sprint qualifying races offered on Saturday.

The sport is expected to confirm the experience, which would award championship points on Saturday as well as in Sunday’s race, for a limited number of 23 grand prizes slated for the season.

The sprint race would effectively serve as a qualifier for Sunday’s main event. The teams are due to have further talks in Bahrain this weekend.

“There are always a million reasons not to do something, but I think the concept is interesting,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner told reporters on the first day of pre-season testing on Friday.

“I think the way they plan to introduce it is reasonably responsible over three events, so why not give it a try? Let’s give it a try.”

New Formula 1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali told the Daily Mail this week that one of the sprint races will take place at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Formula 1 sources have also mentioned Canadian Montreal, Monza in Italy and Interlagos in Brazil as other potential sprint racing hosts, although the schedule may change due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said the format could dramatically boost television viewing figures.

“I saw in the DTM touring cars that we were almost able to double the TV audience with the second race,” said the Austrian.

“I think we should give it a try and then be really honest with ourselves what the financial impact has been, and the eyeball impact, that we’ve been able to generate more and what’s the spectacle factor?”

McLaren’s Andreas Seidl said the devil is in the details but now there is a good proposal on the table.

“I think we will come to a definitive conclusion during this weekend and then it will be Formula 1,” added the German.

Four-time Aston Martin world champion Sebastian Vettel said last week that sprint races made no sense to him, but drivers asked on Friday, including two-time champion Fernando Alonso, were in favor.