Why Red Bull's Christian Horner does not want 'jeopardy' of new sprint format

During the 2023 Australian GP, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner spoke about how the first sprint race of the season should not be in Baku.

Additionally, Max Verstappen also expressed his dislike towards new race weekend formats, saying that he wouldn't stay in F1 if it keeps changing. That suggests that Red Bull are not too keen on race weekends being changed.

On the Sky Sports F1 podcast, F1 presenter Simon Lazenby deciphered why Red Bull are not willing to see any changes to the traditional race weekend. He explained how the Austrian-British team is bulletproof at the moment and how the change in the race weekend format will add a bit of an anomaly, which would increase their chances of failing. He said:

"I think that the thing with Sprints is—and I can understand why Christian Horner is kind of getting his knickers in a twist about it is it's introducing more jeopardy to the weekend. And Red Bull don't want that right now; why would they want that?

"They've got the best car; it's absolutely destroying the competition. So if you bring in another element whereby you could damage your car, they don't want that because that doesn't suit their process at the moment, which is going about winning every qualifying and every race; that's just what they want to do."

Furthermore, he also added how F1 supremo Stefano Domenicali wants to remove free practice sessions and add more sprint races to increase the thrill and entertainment of the sport. Lazenby concluded:

"So why would they be pro-it? You can see it from their perspective. From the others point of view and from a fan's point of view and from Stefano Domenicali's point of view, he wants more entertainment: that's the way he thinks that the weekend should be going."

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Red Bull team boss speaks against sprint race in 2023 Azerbaijan GP

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner reckons keeping the first sprint race of the 2023 F1 season in Baku is quite dangerous.

He explained how it could be thrilling for the fans, but if a car breaks down or is involved in a crash, that team could lose a lot of money just to fix it for upcoming races. He said:

"The reality is that it's absolutely ridiculous to have the first sprint race of the year on a street circuit like Baku. From a fan's point of view, it's going to be one of the most exciting, but for us, all you can do is damage your car and lose money from the budget. One race is enough in Azerbaijan, so two is worrying."

There are talks that the race weekend format of the 2023 Azerbaijan GP could change drastically.