The FIA has tweaked rules around qualifying for the Sprint format returning at this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix.
The Spielberg race marks the second Sprint weekend of the 2023 season. The first took place in Azerbaijan, where there was an important change made to the divisive format.
Practice was cut down to just a single one-hour session on the Friday. On Saturday morning, instead of more practice, there was a second qualifying session which set the grid for the Sprint later that day.
That format will return in Austria this weekend. There will, though, be a slight tweak to the rule regarding the tyres that teams are allowed to use in that session.
In Baku, new medium tyres were required in the first two parts of that Saturday qualifying, while those who made it through to SQ3 were forced to use a new set of softs. But the wording opened up the possibility of using intermediate tyres if no new sets of soft rubber were available.
Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda both used all their sets of soft tyres in qualifying for the main race on the Friday. The AlphaTauri driver did not make it to Q3 so it was not an issue for him, but Norris was in the top 10 and his McLaren team considered sending him out on those intermediate tyres.
In the end, they decided to stay in the garage and simply start 10th on the grid. But to prevent the temptation for teams to use tyres intended for damp weather in dry conditions in the future, the FIA has made a slight change to the wording of the rule.
Instead of being forced to use a new set of soft tyres, teams are now allowed to run with a set which has already been out on track. That change was confirmed in the event notes released by the FIA prior to this weekend's action.
F1 race director Niels Wittich wrote: "Consultation has occurred with the commercial rights holder, stewards and teams. The agreement of the FIA, the commercial rights holder and nine competitors has been obtained in accordance with Article 1.4.
"Accordingly, my decision is that Article 30.5 h) iv) be modified to read as follows – Article 30.5 h) iv revised wording, 'In the period SQ3 of the sprint shootout, up to one set of dry-weather tyres may be used, and this must only be a set of the n̵e̵w̵ soft specification'.
The change allows teams to still use all their sets of soft tyres in qualifying on Friday and still run in SQ3 the following day. While nine of the 10 teams agreed to the change of working, it is not currently clear which of the teams objected.
