In an effort to allow Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen to set even more records and win even more things, Formula 1 announced today that it is considering a new award for the 2024 sprint race weekends, the “Grand Slam.” Basically, the award would be given to any driver who took pole and victory in both the sprint race and the main event. So, congrats to Max, I guess.
The news comes from a Motorsport.com exclusive interview with F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, who said, “There is a proposal that I would like to make, in line with the concept of the ‘Grand Slam’. It is that drivers who take the two poles and the two race wins over the weekend should be recognized with something extra, which represents well the sporting enterprise they have achieved.”
This is obviously early days, so we can’t say for sure what the actual, official reward would be for being speedy in every aspect of a sprint race weekend, but Motorsport reckons that a Grand Slam won’t come with any additional championship points; instead, the driver would probably just get a trophy to tell him he’s the best.
The whole ‘Grand Slam’ thing is part of a larger discussion set to take place regarding sprint race weekends. In 2024, for what would be the third year of sprints, F1 intends to have six sprint weekends — and as feedback continues to come in, it intends to refine the format as well.
But that so-called refinement has come with some confusion thanks to the drastic weekend schedule changes implemented this year. Domenicali, though, claims that constantly rearranging the weekend format isn’t an issue.
“We have analyzed this point,” he said in Motorsport.com. “I believe that the risk is more related to loyal viewers, who have their own habits, rather than to new fans, who are much more open to change.”
Well, that’s certainly something. I’m sure it also wouldn’t be confusing when fans refer to other ‘Grand Slams.’ Currently, if you reference a Grand Slam in F1, you’re talking about a driver who manages to take pole position, set fastest lap, and also win the race in a single event. The same way that it definitely wasn’t confusing for fans to see their pole-position stats muddled up by the sprint race format its first year.
Whatever the case, we here at Jalopnik would like to congratulate Max Verstappen on his Grand Slam wins in 2024. Hopefully he’s already shopping for a new shelf to keep adding to his trophy collection.