Verstappen and Hamilton Say F1 Should Not Run Sprints Where Cars Cannot Pass

Max Verstappen won the Singapore sprint and then argued it should never have been scheduled as one. He and Lewis Hamilton, who finished second, told reporters that a street circuit where overtaking is near impossible is the wrong venue for a format built on racing, Reuters reports.

What did the winner and runner-up actually say?

Both men separated the track from the format. Verstappen said Formula 1 should not host a sprint where passing is not possible, that the overtake mode gains a driver very little at Marina Bay, and that the circuit would need a longer straight or a proper hairpin to race on, Reuters reports. Hamilton agreed the layout needs a longer straight, called it a great track for a single lap, and said there is really one place to attempt a pass. His sharpest line was about the weather: the rain made the sprint fun, and a dry version would probably have been the most boring race to watch.

Why did the sprint itself make their case for them?

Because the action came from incidents, not racing. Saturday’s sprint set a format record with nine retirements, six of its 20 laps ran behind the safety car, and the lead changed hands through a crash rather than a pass, Reuters reports. A sprint is sold as extra racing. In Singapore it delivered extra laps in single file, which is the drivers’ point in one afternoon. The same weekend had already produced the FIA’s admitted human error over overtake mode in sprint qualifying, so the sprint format leaves Singapore with two separate arguments against it.

Why does the argument extend beyond Singapore?

Because the calendar expands sprints while adding a harder street track. Singapore was this season’s sixth and final sprint and drops off the list next year, Reuters reports, but the 2027 calendar grows to 10 sprints and includes Monaco. Charles Leclerc, third on Saturday, said sprints on city tracks in general add nothing to a weekend, naming his home race himself. That turns a post-race complaint into a venue-selection question Formula 1 has already answered the other way for 2027, the same kind of scheduling argument that followed Verstappen through his pole and yellow-flag verdict on Friday.

Why does it matter that Verstappen is the one saying it?

Because he is the format’s most successful critic. Verstappen has opposed sprints for years while winning them, and he won this one from pole after Russell crashed out of the lead in a race where his own starting position was protected by the engine-penalty grid story running in the background all weekend. A complaint from a driver the format hurt could be dismissed as self-interest. The same complaint from the winner, backed by the runner-up and the third-place finisher, is a paddock position. Verstappen’s wider mood this week, telling De Telegraaf the paddock now resembles a zoo, ESPN reports, suggests a champion increasingly willing to argue with the show he headlines.

What could Formula 1 actually change?

Three things, in rising order of difficulty. It could pick sprint venues only from tracks with proven passing, which is the drivers’ request and costs nothing but calendar pride. It could alter Marina Bay’s layout, as Hamilton suggested, which street circuits have done before in small ways. Or it could accept sprints as a qualifying-style spectacle at processional tracks and stop selling them as races. The Mercedes favouritism row that ran alongside this weekend showed how quickly paddock arguments harden; this one has three of the sport’s biggest names on the same side before the grand prix has even run.

What happens next in Singapore?

Sunday’s grand prix, over the full distance, on the same track. Verstappen starts on pole with the Ferraris behind him, and a long race at least gives strategy, pit windows and tyre wear the chance to create the movement the sprint could not. In the event, strategy created the movement the sprint could not: Hamilton stayed out under the virtual safety car on 40-plus-lap-old softs, faded to sixth and apologised for the call. The drivers’ narrower point stands intact either way: the problem is not Singapore, it is asking a 20-lap sprint to do what this circuit does not allow.