Red Bull want F1 to “quickly” decide whether to hold Sprint races in 2022 

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner wants the FIA to decide on the status of sprint races in 2022 as soon as possible. With three sprint events in 2021, the FIA is planning on holding the new qualifying format at six venues this season.

Sprint races were introduced in 2021 as an alternate method of forming the final grid for the main race on Sunday. The traditional method of qualifying was used on Fridays to determine the grid order for the sprint race which was held the following day.

The races were run to one-third of grand prix distances, awarding championship points to the top three winners. The status of the sprint races, however, is still unconfirmed as multiple teams are disputing the budgetary allotments.

With the first sprint race of the 2022 season set to take place at the Bahrain Grand Prix in March, Christian Horner wants the FIA to decide at the earliest. The Red Bull honcho said:

“I’m very much a purist, I believe that qualifying and the race are the fundamental aspects of a grand prix. I think that the sprint races were interesting last year."

"I think the format wasn’t perfect. But if you don’t try something you don’t know, and I think there’s things that could be done to make it more exciting, to make it more interesting. But it’s getting quite late now and we’re going to need to have a decision pretty shortly.”

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Red Bull and Mercedes possibly among teams who asked for additional finances, says Zak Brown

McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown claims top teams such as Mercedes and Red Bull might have asked the FIA to increase their budgetary allotment for the upcoming sprint races in 2022. The American boss feels as though the newly-introduced races don't warrant the additional amount some teams are asking from the FIA.

Teams were given an allowance of $450,000 for taking part in the sprint races, as well as an additional $100,000 for accident damage — all above the $145 million budget cap teams were allotted in 2021.

According to Brown, however, there was hardly any damage in the 2021 season and there is no reason to believe the upcoming season will be any different. The 50-year-old McLaren exec lashed out at other teams, claiming that some others have never had to show fiscal responsibility given their backgrounds. He said:

“It might be new to some teams to actually have to manage a budget, but I think that’s in the spirit of the sport, so you can certainly match the revenue to the expense and resolve that."

"But I think the revenue will grow over time, and I think we need to be very careful to be fiscally sustainable, that certain teams take the opportunity to try and raise that all the time. We need to resist that.”

Red Bull and Mercedes are likely to fight it out once again in 2022, with teams like McLaren and Ferrari ready to pounce for the title at any given opportunity.