Permain: I don't see any problem if there are more sprints.

      Alan Permane, recently appointed the new team principal of Racing Bulls, said he would welcome more sprint races.

      At present the short Saturday races are on the programme at six Grands Prix, but Stefano Domenicali, president and CEO of Formula 1, has promised that their number could be increased in the future.

      “In the end we have to give our customers – the viewers, the fans who watch the races – what they want,” RacingNews365 quotes Permane as saying. “That is our top priority, and of course we trust Stefano and Formula 1. They are doing a great job. Together with them, through the decisions of the Formula 1 Commission, we can shape the face of our sport.

      I think sprints are fun, and I don’t see a problem if there are more of them. I’d be happy.”

      Recently we quoted Domenicali saying that he intends to discuss with the teams the use of a partially reversed starting order in the short Saturday races, since this has long been practiced in the junior F3 and F2 series.

      Such a proposal seems excessively radical, and it is by no means certain that it will be supported. According to Mario Isola, director of Pirelli Motorsport, Formula 1 should take a balanced approach to introducing various kinds of innovations.

      “Changing something when everything is going well is a risk that no one wants to take,” he believes. “But if we don’t want to be late, we must anticipate what might bring success to Formula 1 in the future, because it is not guaranteed. We are having these discussions because Stefano and his organisation decided to undertake something unusual that at first seems rather strange, but that approach works quite well…”