Yep, the Sprint weekends are still a thing. Where we have Practice and Sprint Qualifying on the Friday, then the Sprint Race and proper qualifying on Saturday and then the main Grand Prix as normal on the Sunday.

But how does this work in Fantasy GP? Fair question! Here’s what you need to know.

Format and timings for China:

• Friday – Practice at 3:30am & SPRINT Qualifying at 7:30am – GAME LOCKS
• Saturday – Sprint Race at 3am and Grand Prix Qualifying at 7am
• Sunday – The actual Grand Prix at 7am

Fantasy GP will lock on Friday (when the Sprint Qualifying begins)

Why is this so? The FIA and F1 agreed that it would make more sense to have the Sprint to be separate from the Grand Prix instead of having the Grand Prix qualifying and then the Sprint and then a redundant practice session. With this format, the teams have a chance to make changes following the Sprint race before the qualifying for the Grand Prix, so in theory we may have a different result between the Sprint and the Grand Prix, i.e. if a team decides to change their downforce settings etc.

Now this will mean that for Sprint Weekends like this one for China, there is a massive opportunity for some big points.

To try and keep this simple:

• Predictions
  • these only apply to the main Grand Prix
  • Safety Car counts only applies to the main Grand Prix
  • Podium and Fastest Lap only applies to the main Grand Prix
  • The Bonus Prediction applies to the main Grand Prix
• Pole Position
  • to clarify this is the true ‘Pole Position’ – i.e. the winner of Qualifying on the Saturday, as usual
• Qualifying
  • your drivers will get a qualifying bonus for beating their team mate – this applies to both the Sprint Qualifying and the Grand Prix Qualifying
• Race Points
  • your drivers and cars will score races points as per real life, for both the Sprint & the Grand Prix
  • Sprint 8pts for the win, the 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and down to 1pt for 8th place
  • Grand Prix 25pts fo winning, then 18, 15, 12, 10 and so on down to 10th place (no change here)
• Driver Bonus Points
  • Your drivers will score bonus points for improving position from the start to the finish
  • 2pts per place improved
  • For both the Sprint & Grand Prix races.
  • If a driver starts 20th and finishes 15th, that’s 5 places improved so 10pts bonus in total
• Car Bonus Points
  • your cars will score bonus points for improving positions from start to the finish
  • 1 point for every place improved per car
  • For both Sprint & Grand Prix races
  • 5 points bonus if both cars in a team finish, 2 points bonus if only one finishes.
• DNF
  • If a driver does not finish a Sprint or Grand Prix, they will receive zero points for that Sprint/Grand Prix.
  • Qualifying points remain.

The game guide will be updated but common sense applies – the Sprint is now it’s own entity and does not impact the Grand Prix, so it really is a mini Grand Prix and the points system in Fantasy GP applies to both races.