News24.com | Inaugural Sprint Shootout a massive success as Charles Leclerc makes history

• Charles Leclerc won the first-ever Formula 1 Sprint Shootout, starting the Azerbaijan Sprint Race at the front.
• The Sprint Shootout was a success, and the number of Sprint Races can be expanded in 2024.
• Leclerc will start the Sprint Race ahead of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.

Formula 1's inaugural Sprint Shootout was a monumental success! Though there may have been some trepidation over the format's implementation, there is no doubt that the sprint qualifying has done its intended job.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who secured pole position for Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Friday's qualifying, also managed to become the first driver to win the first-ever Sprint Shootout, and will start this afternoon's Sprint Race from the front, followed by Red Bull Racing's Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.

With the final part of the Sprint Shootout coming around, the ten remaining drivers took to the track, and Leclerc set the early benchmark time to secure provisionally secure the position. He crashed into the wall on his second attempt, but it didn't hinder anyone else's attempt, except for teammate Carlos Sainz's.

Still, Sainz was off the pace and not in a position to challenge the blistering Monegasque.

"We will go for it," Leclerc said when asked about the Sprint Race.

"But we need also to be realistic, and until now, we have been on the backfoot in the race, especially (since) the Red Bulls seem to be a step ahead. Let's see how it is.

"Hopefully we have a good surprise."

What's next for Sprint Saturdays?

Under the ownership of Liberty Media, F1 is always looking at ways to improve the show. The Sprint Race's introduction in 2021 was another attempt at doing show, but the format went unchanged for two seasons, until now.

And with all the teams agreeing to it, it was only a case of seeing if the experiment would work. Given that it did, we are now wondering about what is next for F1's new style.

READ: EXPLAINER | F1 introduces new Sprint Race format that has little to no bearing on a race

F1 confirmed that it wants to expand the Sprint Race to more races in 2024, doubling it to six from the three in '21 and '22. Had the sport continued in '23 with an unchanged recipe, it would not have added anything worthwhile.

Now, with F1 immediately seeing the results of the Sprint Shootout, more races could be added to the Sprint Race calendar in '24.