F1 Sprint races could be scrapped in 2022, following disagreements between teams over budget

F1 sprint races could be scrapped in 2022 owing to disagreements between teams over the allotted budget for the event. The newly introduced qualifying system gained a lot of positive attention from the media and fans as it provided additional racing.

The sport decided to expand the number of sprint races in 2022 after three such successful events were conducted in 2021. The FIA had initially planned to keep six such races in 2022 but there hasn't been official confirmation yet as some teams are looking for a greater financial allotment for the short yet exciting event.

In 2021, teams were given a budget of $100,000 per sprint race and an additional $100,000 could be spent on the car if any serious damage was incurred. Some teams, however, felt as if this amount was too low to justify the event and reportedly asked for more finances from the FIA.

As per McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown, one particular team is even asking for a $5 million budget increase to ensure sprint races don't eat into the already low budget teams have been given in 2022. The American also claimed some teams are complaining because they have not had to manage on a fixed budget thus far. Claiming there was very little sprint race-related damage to cars in 2021, Brown said:

“It might be new to some teams to actually have to manage a budget, but I think that’s in the spirit of the sport, so you can certainly match the revenue to the expense and resolve that. But I think the revenue will grow over time, and I think we need to be very careful to be fiscally sustainable, that certain teams take the opportunity to try and raise that all the time. We need to resist that.”

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Zak Brown claims it wise to scrap F1 sprint races in 2022

McLaren is one of the F1 teams that seems to be alright with the current F1 sprint race budget. Despite approving the finances, Zak Brown claims it would be wise to scrap the races in 2022 and focus on reaching a mutual conclusion between all teams for the 2023 season. He said:

“I’d like to see that we don’t end up in a situation where we’re only going to vote on 2022 because we’ve passed an important date and therefore need to get eight votes. If you want to play it hard, I think we should go ahead and commit everything to 2023 now, without any increase in the budget cap. Then maybe we can compromise and raise it just a little bit.”

The F1 commission requires 28 out of 30 votes to make a rule change the following season. It is unlikely that a supermajority of this sort will be reached in the coming months. Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari are, however, reportedly unhappy with the sprint race's budget allocation and might force their customer teams to side with them in the voting process.

As it stands, there is no official confirmation on the status of F1 sprint races in 2022, but fans can remain hopeful that they will get to see an additional 100 km dash at six venues in 2022.