News Summary
- F1 will increase its Sprint calendar from 6 to 10 events in 2027, citing stronger audiences and increased value for spectators.
- Monaco and Abu Dhabi are among 5 first-time Sprint hosts, alongside Bahrain, Australia and Japan.
- The problem is not Sprint racing itself, but F1’s assumption that adding competitive sessions automatically creates a better sporting product.
Formula 1 has numbers on its side. Sprint weekends attract larger audiences, Sprint Qualifying comfortably outperforms free practice and fans attending these events overwhelmingly tell F1 that the format adds value to their tickets. If the question is simply whether the Sprint works commercially, the answer increasingly appears to be yes.
But sport cannot be judged entirely through an engagement dashboard.
F1’s decision to expand from 6 Sprints in 2026 to 10 in 2027 illustrates the growing disconnect between what the championship calls “more action” and what actually creates better racing. Bahrain, Australia, Japan, Monaco and Abu Dhabi will hold their first Sprints, while Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Brazil and Qatar retain or regain the format.
Some of those choices are easy to understand. Others make F1’s sales pitch considerably harder to take seriously.
More Sprint does not necessarily mean more spectacle
There is nothing inherently wrong with expanding the Sprint format. Interlagos has repeatedly demonstrated why it can work, and putting extra racing at Silverstone or Monza is hardly difficult to defend. Montreal has characteristics that can encourage mistakes and overtaking, while even Bahrain — despite questions over its position at the beginning of the season — offers a circuit suited to wheel-to-wheel racing.
That is precisely why Monaco stands out.
The Monaco Grand Prix remains one of F1’s defining events, but modern cars have made overtaking exceptionally difficult around Monte Carlo. Qualifying is routinely the competitive highlight because the combination of speed, precision and proximity to the barriers creates something genuinely distinctive.
F1’s solution for 2027 is to add another race.
The championship presents this as an opportunity for fans to enjoy 2 qualifying sessions and additional competitive running on the streets of Monte Carlo. That is true in the literal sense: there will be more sessions in which the result matters. But a session carrying points is not automatically a good race, and putting the Sprint label on Monaco does nothing to address the fundamental reasons overtaking there is so difficult.
Abu Dhabi raises a different version of the same question. Yas Marina has improved since its layout changes, but selecting the championship finale for an additional points-paying race risks making Sprint expansion feel less like careful sporting curation and more like an attempt to insert the product wherever commercially possible.
That is where F1 undermines its own argument.
F1 has the data — but that’s not the whole argument
Formula 1 says total viewership across Sprint weekends is 12% higher than on conventional weekends. Sprint Qualifying can attract up to 3 times the audience of free practice, 82% of attendees say Sprint adds value to their ticket and 75% of surveyed fans believe Sprint events add value to the championship calendar. Those are significant numbers and explain why F1 wants more of them.
The mistake is using those figures as though they settle the sporting debate.
Of course Sprint Qualifying attracts more viewers than practice. One session determines a grid and the other is, by definition, practice. Of course an additional race can make a three-day ticket appear more valuable. Those are legitimate commercial advantages, but neither tells us whether a particular circuit is capable of producing a worthwhile Sprint.
There is also a larger consequence. The more F1 expands the format, the less exceptional it becomes.
With 10 Sprint weekends in a 24-round season, more than 40% of Grands Prix will feature an additional race. Sprint is no longer an occasional variation reserved for venues particularly suited to it. It is becoming a standard component of the championship.
F1 is entitled to make that choice. But if Sprint is going to become this common, the criteria for selecting its venues should become more rigorous, not less.
Bahrain exposes another problem
Bahrain is a good racing circuit. That isn’t the issue.
The 2027 season will begin at Sakhir after pre-season testing takes place there from February 24-27. The championship then opens in Bahrain before moving to Saudi Arabia, Australia, Japan and China.
Adding a Sprint to the opening Grand Prix means teams will arrive at the first competitive weekend of an entirely new season with only one free-practice session before Sprint Qualifying.
That may create unpredictability. It may produce mistakes. It will certainly give F1 meaningful competitive action earlier in the weekend.
But unpredictability and quality are not synonyms.
Particularly when teams are still understanding new cars and establishing the competitive order, reducing preparation time can manufacture uncertainty rather than produce better racing. There is a legitimate argument that the opening weekend should allow the championship to reveal itself before F1 starts deliberately compressing preparation.
Again, the issue is not that Bahrain cannot host a good Sprint. It can. The question is whether the first weekend of a season is where F1 needs one.
Interlagos shows what the format can be
The strongest criticism of F1’s 2027 choices comes from the circuits where Sprint actually makes sense.
São Paulo remains on the list, and rightly so. Interlagos offers elevation changes, multiple viable lines, unpredictable weather and genuine overtaking opportunities. It is precisely the kind of venue where shortening preparation and adding another race can amplify characteristics that already exist rather than trying to manufacture excitement.
Silverstone and Monza can make similar cases. Montreal brings its own combination of braking zones, walls and strategic uncertainty.
These selections demonstrate that the Sprint format itself is not the problem.
The problem comes when F1 appears to work backwards: first deciding it wants 10 Sprints and then finding 10 places to put them.
Formula 1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali says the expansion will give fans more “intensity, drama” and wheel-to-wheel action. FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem similarly described the 2027 calendar as combining innovation and fan engagement with high sporting standards.
Those ambitions are reasonable. But putting an extra race on the timetable does not guarantee any of them.
F1 should trust its own product
This is ultimately where Formula 1’s approach feels unnecessarily cynical.
F1 is enjoying enormous global interest. It has strong television audiences, packed grandstands, expanding markets and a championship capable of generating stories throughout a weekend without every meaningful session needing to award points.
Free practice has a purpose. Qualifying has a purpose. The Grand Prix is supposed to be the centrepiece.
Sprint can complement that structure when the circuit, timing and championship context make sense. It should not need to colonise almost half the calendar simply because the audience metrics are better than FP2.
The 2027 selection contains enough good Sprint venues to demonstrate the format’s potential — and enough questionable ones to suggest F1 has become more interested in quantity than discrimination.
If Formula 1 genuinely believes Sprint produces better weekends, it should be confident enough to choose the circuits where that claim can withstand scrutiny.
More racing can be good.
More racing simply for the sake of having more racing is something else entirely.
Follow the latest developments, analysis and news from the 2026 and 2027 championships on the GRANDE PRÊMIO English F1 hub.
FAQ
How many F1 Sprint races will there be in 2027?
Formula 1 will hold 10 Sprint events during the 24-round 2027 season, an increase from 6 in 2026. Bahrain, Australia, Japan, Monaco and Abu Dhabi will host the format for the first time.
Which F1 races will have Sprints in 2027?
The 2027 Sprint events will take place in Bahrain, Australia, Japan, Monaco, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Brazil, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
Why is F1 adding more Sprint races?
F1 says Sprint weekends deliver stronger audience figures and additional value for spectators. According to championship data, total viewership is 12% higher on Sprint weekends, while 82% of attending fans surveyed say the format adds value to their ticket.
Tags:
