Russell calls for sprints to be ‘50 percent longer’

George Russell has declared himself “not a big fan” of sprint races and thinks the format needs further changes to be a success.

Sprints have become Formula 1’s marmite in that some people love it and some people hate it. Just three sprint weekends are present on the 2022 calendar, but that is set to increase again to six for 2023.

And Russell, who started P11 and finished P11 in the first sprint of the season at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, is firmly in that ‘hate it’ group.

But rather than just completely dismiss the concept, he suggested that the sprints are stretched beyond the current 100km distance so that tyre wear becomes more of a factor and creates added variation.

P4 out of nowhere today. Pleased with the result but we won’t stop pushing for more. Good little battle with KMag & VB too, enjoyed that. Thanks for all the support. pic.twitter.com/K9WiNLlK2s

— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) April 24, 2022

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“I’m not a big fan, I have to admit,” Russell said, as quoted by the Dutch version of Motorsport.com.

“The race should be 50 percent longer, so the tyres will wear out more. The drivers may