The question about F1's Sprint calendar is no longer whether it grows. It is by how much.
Stefano Domenicali used Liberty Media's half-year earnings call on Thursday to confirm an expansion for 2027, pointing to attendance data rather than sporting argument.
"Our Sprint format continues to drive higher Friday attendances and stronger daily attendances to our race weekend," the F1 CEO said in remarks reported by PlanetF1. "The success of the Sprint format continues to drive interest from promoters in hosting a Sprint race, and we expect to expand the number of Sprints for next year and to provide further details soon."
Six Sprints are on the 2026 calendar, two of them still to come at Zandvoort and Singapore. F1's Commission discussed doubling that to 12 back in February. Domenicali declined to name a figure, and his reasoning was about pricing rather than racing.
"We want to do it in the right way because, of course, this will allow us also to make sure that the scarcity is a value," he said, adding that going "everywhere" would destroy the commercial premium a Sprint carries for a promoter. On whether the number rises at all, he was blunt: "That's 1,000 per cent what will happen already next year."
Flavio Briatore would drop the scarcity argument entirely. The Alpine executive advisor told The Race that Friday as currently constituted does nothing for the people who paid to be there.
"I believe we need to do the sprint races. If it was me, every race, because we need to give something more to the spectator," Briatore said. "We do nothing for the spectator, because Friday morning is only technical. You got two laps, you come back, and people are not here."
His case rests on giving the driver a result to chase instead of a run plan to complete. "With the sprint race, at least you have two races, two starters, and the driver is driving for something. He's not driving only for the engineering. For me, 24 races, 24 sprint races."
The drivers land somewhere else. Max Verstappen holds the record for Sprint wins with 13 of the 24 ever run, and told Blick in January that the format is a net negative.
"Most of these unnecessary appearances on Saturday were also rather boring," he said. "But even worse, they disrupt the normal schedule for our real race on Sunday. And most fans forget something: this constant activity is especially stressful for the mechanics. Most teams are already working in two shifts."
Carlos Sainz's objection is more technical. Speaking at the Bahrain test, quoted by Crash.net, he said the Sprint's problem is that it gives away Sunday.
"I think the sprint format still needs to be fine-tuned and improved, given the fact that I think sometimes the sprint reveals too much of what's going to happen on Sunday," Sainz said. "If we can improve that and make the sprint a bit different to what we see on Sunday, I would be open to having more sprint races."
He also flagged the load away from the car - a busier Friday and Saturday layered on top of media and sponsor obligations that have grown sharply, with no corresponding adjustment to the weekend schedule.
Charles Leclerc agreed with Sainz and then named a number. "I actually really like the sprint weekends, but I still believe that it should be a minority of races and having it as a standardised weekend in the future, if that's the plan at any time, I don't think is the right thing," the Ferrari driver said. "At least I wouldn't like it that way, but I'll drive anyway and adapt to it. But I think six is probably the sweet spot."
The two sides are reading different data. F1 points to 3.3 million trackside fans and ten sellouts through the Belgian Grand Prix, plus a record 564,000 across the British Grand Prix weekend. The drivers are reading a calendar that already runs to 24 rounds. Leclerc's closing concession - he will drive it regardless - tells you which reading is likely to win.
