hm i was thinking about sprint races and since they're going to be staying, they should probably be made more interesting. and i know people often suggest reverse grid, but that idea has been established as not working well for F1 compared to F2. Therefore I was wondering if it could be modified a little bit:
For sprints, qualifying is done like normal, but only people who get out in Q1 and Q2 are able to race in the sprint? And the P1-P8 point system is the same (or altered a little as to not overly inflate ratings if that could be a concern). People in Q3 don't qualify here, but are guaranteed a place in Q3 for race quali, meaning that anyone who gets out in sprint quali can't get any higher in race quali (but these drivers gets the chance to requalify in the q1/q2 bracket)
I think this would be cool to let the midfield shine a little more and have a greater chance of getting points for the WCC, as the quali locking typically wouldn't impact them anyway. What it would do is maybe lead to interesting strategy for top teams, as they would have the option to purposely qualify low for the sprint to get points, but as a consequence, would be locked down in the actual race quali and could maybe have trouble digging back up for the big points, which could be really interesting to see in close driver/constructor championship battles where every point counts.
I think that could make sprints more meaningful, as right now they're just shorter races for a few points guaranteed to go to top teams that already get points easily enough during the actual races. but if you have other ideas feel free to share them bc i wonder what cool things can be done with the sprints
