How will F1 teams tackle the challenge of limited long-run data due to the new sprint format? Valtteri Bottas gives his take

Valtteri Bottas claims F1 teams will be relying on simulated data, analytical tools and past race data to evaluate their pace over the sprint weekend.

With the lack of long run data available due to limited practice sessions, the Finnish driver feels it will be challenging to determine the performance but they have a slight idea of where they stand.

Asked by Sportskeeda how F1 teams plan to tackle the unknown with the lack of long run data at a sprint weekend, Bottas explained:

“I think it's a combination of simulations, experience gathered in the past years, gut feeling, different calculations and whatever feedback we can give as drivers after FP1 from the laps we do, and the tyre wear numbers that we see; all these things are just taken into consideration."

"And then you need to make a plan based on those and hope it goes right. So obviously, there's lots of preparation done before the weekend already and we kind of have an idea, but we need to confirm those things in practice. So yeah, definitely, you need to get it right. And it's not easy.”

Answering Sportskeeda’s question, Lance Stroll said:

“I thought Valtteri’s summary was very good. I don't think I could have really said it better. It's tricky, there's not a lot of time to… like I said before, to get everything right. So it's just… with what you're able to do with one practice session, trying to put it all together.

With a single practice session prior to qualifying for the stand-alone sprint race, there are suspicions that F1 teams could use the sprint race pace to gather data for the main race. However, Bottas’ explanation suggests teams will be relying on analytical tools and simulated data to correlate what can happen on track.

Max Verstappen spoke to Sportskeeda and explained that determining tire performance could make the weekend tricky.

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Carlos Sainz believes that F1 teams will use the sprint data for the main race

Carlos Sainz claimed that he is prepared for the sprint race weekend like a normal weekend. He believes that the data from the sprint qualifying and sprint race will be used to determine their position in the pecking order for the race.

Explaining the approach for the F1 sprint weekend, Sainz spoke to Sportskeeda at a press conference in Baku, saying:

“Personally, I've prepared the race as a normal race and the long run, you have to believe the simulations. The data that comes out of the sprint qualifying is also important for the main race; let's not forget that the main race is still the one that gives out the most points and I guess that sprint race will give us a lot of information going into the main race."

The Free Practice session data at an incident-prone circuit like Baku will be difficult to analyze, according to many. F1 teams will have to try their best to have a clean weekend and avoid damage to the car to ensure they can maximize the best out of the sprint and the main race.

Long run data from the second and third practice sessions is vital data on a normal race weekend. With a single practice session, teams will have difficulty knowing what their rivals are up to in terms of setup and performance.