F1 2024 post-season could be extended with exciting rookie sprint race plans

The traditional post-season Abu Dhabi running could be heading for a major shake-up with a sprint race for rookies under consideration.

Over recent years there has been a conscious effort to create more opportunities for rookie drivers to get their foot in the Formula 1 door – which has become increasingly harder to achieve – with initiatives like mandating a rookie is run by each team in two FP1 sessions during a season. But, a more radical plan has been put on the table.

F1 news: F1 2024 season to be extended with rookie sprint?

Once the chequered flag falls on a Formula 1 season in Abu Dhabi , a Young Drivers’ Test takes place during the following week, with a driver that has fewer than two grands prix of experience in one car, while tyre testing duties with next season in mind are carried out by one of the team’s current drivers in the second car.

However, ahead of September’s F1 Commission meeting, teams have been asked to consider the viability of holding a sprint race for rookie drivers during that Abu Dhabi post-season period, F1 president Stefano Domenicali confirming that the idea would then be discussed “in detail” at the F1 Commission meeting.

He spoke highly of the plan which would provide rookie drivers with important competitive experience as they search for their F1 breakthrough.

“There is a project on the table, namely the possibility of organising a sprint race for young drivers in Abu Dhabi,” he told Motorsport.com .

“We are reflecting on how to give young people the opportunity during the Yas Marina test to shine and gain experience – not only by driving in the test, but also in a competitive context.

“It would certainly help their training, aimed at making them prepared for the next step. We will talk about it in detail by the end of September to understand the feasibility of this idea.”

The F1 sprint format explained

👉 F1 Sprint explained: New rules, format and how it differs from standard F1 races

👉 Why American F1 fans are left conflicted over 2025 sprint race plans

Such an idea would carry hints of the proposal which ex-F1 team boss Eddie Jordan recently put forward for the standard sprint format used at selected rounds in an F1 season, as part of which he called for rookie drivers to become the focus.

The F1 sprint format expanded to feature at six rounds on the calendar for the first time in F1 2024.

“Winning a sprint race is not winning a grand prix, they are not even close in my book,” Jordan said on the Formula For Success podcast .

“One is playful carry on getting a few points and the other is a hardcore grand prix, where you have to prepare and do things differently.

“I think sprint race needs to be called to question. I think it’s not providing what it should have provided or what they set out to provide and I have a solution, perhaps, to rookie drivers and sprint races.

“I think sprint racing is a failure. It’s shambolic. It shouldn’t be in the weekend for the grand prix.

“It’s distracting. It’s taking us away from what we’re really there to do to see who wins the grand prix.

“So now rather than lose it, I would propose having four grands prix, which are four of the races that are key in our calendar…so you talk about Spa, Silverstone, Monza, and then a choice of somewhere else, let’s put it into Monaco.

“So for me, when you have tennis and you have a Grand Slam, these would be for me the Grand Slam events.

“And what I would like to propose does happen so as it doesn’t need extra cars, it doesn’t need extra parts, that a sprint race, which can be shorter, because really, all you want to do is see the start of the race and see how people qualify…so you give them a chance to get the feel, soak up the atmosphere of the Saturday, and we have a sprint race at four events a year – and no driver can enter that race if they’ve completed in over 10 grands prix.

“So it gives some of those guys who are unlucky, that got squeezed out, some of the guys who are on the way up, and it gives them a chance.

“You can make it they have to do five grands prix, 10 grands prix, it doesn’t matter what that figure is. But I’m just saying you can’t have it open ended and anyone who’s a bit of a star and is just on the cusp and looking for a drive come there.

“But anyway, that’s my proposal. My proposal is that we pick four races, get rid of sprint racing, and make these sprint races into four of them per year in the circuits that have been loyal to Formula 1 for the longest time – and I think that’s a way of repaying it.

“And I do believe this. It needs to be doctored. I’m not saying that’s the full complete package, but that’s my view [of] how I think this could be handled.”

Read next: Logan Sargeant breaks silence on Williams sack with personal statement