Formula 1 is holding a watching brief over the potential risk of weather disruption on Saturday at the Brazilian Grand Prix, with a cyclone expected to hit the Sao Paulo region overnight.
Brazil’s National Institute of Meteorology has warned of an extratropical cyclone forming in the south of Brazil on Friday evening and then expected to advance towards the south east.
It is expected that the Sao Paulo area – including the city region – could experience between 30mm and 60mm per hour of rain, with intense winds of up to 100km/h.
The conditions are so bad that there are risks of power outages, falling trees and flooding.
Current forecasts expect the worst of the weather to hit the Interlagos track on Saturday morning before easing.
The situation is moving around, but potential disruption could trigger headaches for F1 and the FIA when it comes to getting both a sprint and grand prix qualifying run on Saturday if conditions are bad.
F1’s sporting regulations are clear, however, about how things play out if bad weather interrupts play.
What are the options to delay the sprint?
The first hurdle that F1 faces if conditions are treacherous on Saturday will be to get the sprint completed.
There will be options to delay the start if the weather is too bad, but this cannot happen indefinitely as there is a window by which it needs to be completed because of qualifying later in the day.
F1’s sporting regulations state that there needs to be a minimum three-hour window between the end of the sprint and the start of qualifying for the main grand prix.
With F1 probably needing to get qualifying going before 5pm to avoid it ending in too-dark conditions (sunset is around 6.30pm), that would mean getting the sprint completed before 2pm.
That effectively gives the FIA a window for a two or three hour delay before it would have to start thinking about abandoning the sprint completely or moving qualifying back to Sunday.
What happens to the points if sprint is shortened?
One scenario that is not impossible is that the sprint starts but has to be abandoned early – either because of incidents or bad weather.
This would have implications in terms of handing out points, with F1’s sporting regulations outlining certain criteria needing to be fulfilled if the full offering is given out.
The rules state that no points will be awarded unless a minimum of two laps have been completed by the leader without a safety car or virtual safety car intervention.
Furthermore, if the leader completes less than 50% of the scheduled sprint session then no points will be awarded either.
If more than half distance is done, with at least two laps free of safety car interference, then full points are given out.
How will the grid be decided if qualifying is abandoned?
Formula 1 showed last year, when Saturday was a wash out, that it is willing to go the extra mile to ensure that qualifying does take place.
It moved the session to 7.30am on the Sunday to avoid the worst of the rain that struck 12 months ago.
The option to have a repeat Sunday qualifying would be on the table again if Saturday’s conditions prove impossible to run in.
But if the session does not take place, then new rules introduced for this year provide a clear way for the grid to be decided.
Rather than it being down to the stewards to pick a suitable way of deciding the grid, now if qualifying does not take place then the grid for the race will be decided on championship position.
That means a Saturday wash out, with no option to run qualifying on Sunday, would mean Lando Norris starting the Brazilian GP from pole, ahead of Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen.
