F1 | Verstappen sarcastic: “Sprint in China? Very clever!”

The last time China hosted an F1 race was in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic derailed the Grand Prix.

F1 now returns to the challenging Shanghai International Circuit after a four-season absence, with teams facing several unknowns, including the regulatory change that has led to ground-effect cars.

To add further headaches for the teams, China has been chosen as the first of six Sprint locations for this year, with a format that will therefore allow just 60 minutes to find the ideal set-up.

When Motorsport.com asked him what he thought about Shanghai hosting a Sprint on its return day, Verstappen responded sarcastically: “Yes, it's very smart to do it.”

“I think it's not the best thing to do, because when you're away from a track for a while, you never know what you risk, so it would have been better to organize a normal race weekend.”

“On the other hand, maybe that spices things up a little bit, and that's maybe what they would like to see. But from a driving and performance perspective, I think it's not the smartest thing to do.”

“We'll see what we can do. I've always liked driving there, so I hope we can get off to the best possible start, hoping not to have to fine-tune too many things on the car.”

This year the Sprints will follow a modified format, with free practice and the Sprint Shootout taking place on Friday and the Sprint on Saturday morning. Qualifying for the long race on Sunday will take place on Saturday afternoon.

This change means that parc fermé will reopen after the Sprint for Saturday qualifying, addressing complaints that the original format was too restrictive.

However, the limitation of just one test session remains, which according to Ferrari's Carlos Sainz is a bit excessive in the case of China. “I think Shanghai is a fantastic circuit, one of everyone's favourites,” he said. “It's a great track and a track that offers good overtaking opportunities, so it makes sense to do a Sprint there.”

At the same time, and we said this in the briefing to the FIA ​​and Formula 1: with this type of car, going to a track with an hour of testing and immediately after qualifying, with the regulations that impose on us, such as wear skids and things like that and with how treacherous a crash can make the car, I think it's not a good choice to put the Sprint after four or five years of absence.”

“We also heard that there is some resurfacing work going on. Maybe for you at home it's exciting, but for the engineers and drivers, in my opinion, we shouldn't take the risk and have a normal weekend.”