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The upcoming Austrian GP race weekend will be held at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg from June 30 to July 2. It will also have the second F1 Sprint for the 2023 season, the first being hosted earlier this year at the Baku Street Circuit in Azerbaijan. Sergio Perez went on to win both the Sprint and the race in the city of Baku at the end of April.
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) had introduced the F1 Sprint to the calendar in 2021, to make the sport more exciting for the fans and drivers alike. In 2023, there are six sprints to be held in Baku, Spielberg, Stavelot, Dallas, Lusail, and Sao Paulo.
On Saturday, July 1, the F1 Sprint, which is a 100-km flat out dash to the finish line, will take place after the Sprint Shootout, a qualifying session to find the grid positions for the event later in the day at the Austrian GP weekend. This will be a three-session knockout, just like the standard F1 race qualifying, but timings are going to be shorter in comparison, to address the issues of teams related to engines and tyre wear.
SQ1 is going to last for 12 minutes instead of 18 minutes, which will allow a pitstop between two timed laps. Meanwhile, SQ2 is going to last for 15 minutes instead of 18 minutes and SQ3 is going to last for eight minutes instead of 12 minutes, which will allow the drivers to have two timed laps without a pitstop.
There are also going to be certain restrictions in relation to the tyre utilisation for Sprint Shootout, unlike the regular F1 race qualifying. It includes the mandatory use of new sets of tyres in all the three sessions, including medium compounds in SQ1 and SQ2, before a switch to soft compound for the SQ3.
