Max Verstappen has called on Formula 1 to stop hosting sprint races on circuits where overtaking is difficult after very little passing took place during Saturday’s 20-lap sprint in Singapore.
This weekend is the first time F1 has run its sprint format in Singapore -- a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult -- since the Saturday races were introduced to the sport in 2021.
Singapore is the last of six sprint weekends this season, with F1 increasing the number to 10 in 2027, including one at the Monaco Grand Prix where overtaking is even more difficult than in Singapore.
Four-time champion Verstappen, who won Saturday’s sprint race after taking the lead when George Russell crashed in front of him on the opening lap, said the format should be reserved purely for circuits where passing is possible.
“I think we shouldn’t host a sprint where you can’t pass,” Verstappen said. “If you have tracks where you can race and can overtake [it works], but of course in some places you cannot pass and we are going to have sprints there also next year.
“I’m fine. I just do my thing and then that’s it, right? But yeah, it’s not what I like.”
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc agreed, adding that street circuits, such as Singapore and his home race in Monaco, should not be considered as sprint venues.
“I don’t think it makes sense to have any sprint races on city tracks in general,” he said. “And we probably should use these sprints to have them on tracks where it’s easy to overtake, where you can have a lot of racing action and actually add something to the weekend.
“Whereas here or Monaco, I don’t think it adds anything to the weekend.”
Lewis Hamilton, who finished second in Saturday’s sprint, said the only reason the 20-lap race provided any entertainment was because it rained ahead of the start.
“I thought it was fun, but if it was dry, that would have been probably the most boring race for you to have watched,” the seven-time champion said.
“It was the wet, the rain that made it exciting. So if you can always make it rain, then it’s always going to be a great sprint race. But otherwise, it’d probably just been straightforward tyre management, everyone sticking behind each other.”
Hamilton also called for the Singapore circuit layout to be changed to encourage more overtaking in the future.
“I love the race here -- I really do love the race -- but I was just saying to Max, I think they need to change the track to maybe a longer straight somewhere in order to allow it to be truly a great racing circuit, because I think it has the potential to be a great racing circuit.
“It’s a great track to drive over a single lap and qualifying, but there literally just isn’t many [places to pass]. There’s like one place, I guess, really that you could potentially get close to overtake. But then in other places like [Turn] 16, the crest in the middle of the track, sparks come up because the track isn’t particularly flat.
“I don’t know if it’s for the rain or whatever it is, but I think there’s some adjustments that can be made to make this 100% like a great circuit. But whether or not they’re going to do that, I don’t know.”
Verstappen said the lack of overtaking in Singapore is not helped by the ineffectiveness of the power unit’s overtake mode, which allows a chasing driver to access full electric power for more of the lap than the car in front.
“Also the problem we have at the moment is with the overtake mode, it barely does anything here,” Verstappen added.
“You don’t really gain a lot on the straights. So also that with how all the rules are at the moment, with our lovely batteries, it just doesn’t do much. You can’t even get super close or have a massive overspeed at the moment.
“So I of course fully agree we need to have a longer straight or more of a proper hairpin to overtake. But even with that also, we need a bigger delta on the straight.”