Following the conclusion of round three of the sport, Formula 1 will shortly head to Baku for the weekend’s most exciting events. Max Verstappen has been making threats to leave the sport due to its continued fixation on holding sprint races as the weekend gets underway. After winning the pole at Albert Park, the world champion, who has already expressed his disagreement with the sprint race format, stated plainly that it was against the sport’s DNA and that F1 was not improving race weekends in the right way. In response to the Dutchman’s justification for leaving Formula One, F1 rockstar Guenther Steiner has now backed him up with a quite rational response.

Three races were held in the inaugural sprint format in 2021; this season, there will be six races. A qualifying session that determines the starting grid for the sprint race on Saturday is substituted for traditional qualifying on sprint weekends in place of Friday’s second practice. The sprint determines the starting lineup for Sunday’s Grand Prix. Melbourne’s conversation has been dominated by the issue, as F1 works to enhance its mix in conjunction with the teams and FIA.

Verstappen previously asserted that the sprint significantly increases the weekend’s intensity and that because 2023 is the longest F1 season, the teams and drivers may not be able to cope with it. The Dutchman is aware that the FIA is attempting to make each day of the weekend, including Fridays, more exciting, but he believes that a two-day race weekend is preferable to introducing and evaluating new forms.

And recently Haas team Boss Guenther Steiner has opted to back the views of Dutchman over the Sprint racing format. When asked by the Unlapped podcast show host, the Italian Engineer said, “I think it’s time to change the Sprint format. This is the the the practice session on Saturday morning it was just like If I didn’t want to watch it, to be honest, because it was just like, I mean there’s nothing happening.”

“Yeah, you can test the Tires, but you cannot set the car up anymore, you cannot touch it anymore. So you’re just going really in circles without learning anything and not giving any excitement to the fans.”

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Even though the season has only had three races, Verstappen has once again been the best driver on the track and is poised to win his third consecutive championship. However, he has made it abundantly apparent that he won’t be engaged in racing for very long, and the Dutchman is now receiving criticism for the peculiar warning.

Max Verstappen receives criticism for making repeated threats against the sport and was told to “stop”

Six sprint races are planned for the 2023 season since Stefano Domenicali, the F1 CEO, believed that they could increase the sport’s enthusiasm. Verstappen has consistently spoken out against it and discussed how chaotic it may be for the drivers on these weekends. However, a world champion in Formula One has recently criticized his frequent threats. Former world champion Damon Hill claims that the Dutch driver should quit Formula One since he is not enjoying himself.

As quoted by the Skysports podcast Hill said, “Max’s retirement threat is very unusual. It’s kind of strange to hear, isn’t it? I mean, what’s he going to do with himself? He should stop now, really. Stop now, he’s done it. You mentioned fun. I think that’s a very important point. Is he having fun, because I sometimes think he’s not having fun.”

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Do you think Max’s threat has a logic behind it? Is the sprint race format putting additional pressure on drivers? Let us know in the comments below.