Formula 1 has announced the six venues that will host F1 Sprint events during the 2024 season.

Brazil is set to host its fourth Sprint weekend, with Austria to host its third, Austin and Qatar returning for a second year, and China and Miami joining the line-up for the first time.

F1’s Sprint calendar is designed to feature circuits which encourage overtaking and make for close and entertaining racing.

Since its introduction in 2021, the Sprint format has had a positive impact on audience figures, especially on Friday compared to regular practice sessions, and has provided promoters and fans with extra competitive on-track action at the six events.

According to research by Nielsen spanning 21 markets, the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix saw the broadcast audience for qualifying +83% vs the 2022 second practice session, while it was +139% for the US Grand Prix and +34% for the Belgian Grand Prix.

During discussions at the F1 Commission meeting in November, there was overall support for an update to the Sprint Format for 2024 to further rationalise the weekend by separating Sprint activities from those for the Grand Prix.

The Sporting Advisory Committee will work through specific details, particularly regarding timing and parc ferme regulations, for a final proposal to be presented to the F1 Commission for the first meeting of 2024.

Following that meeting, any potential changes to the Sprint format will be announced.

In its various guises, Sauber has launched its cars in Austria, Germany and, most often, Switzerland, with the 2023 C43 unveiled in a joint ceremony in Zurich and the team's headquarters in Hinwil.

But the outfit has never lifted the covers in the UK, something that will change ahead of the 2024 season.

Speaking at the Autosport Awards, Alunni Bravi said: "On the 10th of December, as soon as the FIA will publish the entry list that we will of course announce the new team name.

"I think will be a surprise and we cannot wait to start the partnership with our new partners. We will have, I think, a really fresh approach in terms of communication marketing and we will do a launch of the car here in the UK."

Sauber will run under a new name next year after ending a six-year relationship with Alfa Romeo, five of which saw the team compete under the moniker of the Italian manufacturer.

"This year, we concluded our successful partnership with Alfa Romeo. And for 2024 we will, of course, have a different team name," he added.

"As you know, in Formula 1, the team name is also the pending foreign commercial partnership. We don't want to disclose anything more tonight."

Sauber will enter its next era in 2026 as the Audi works entry, but Alunni Bravi has previously confirmed that logos and the Audi name will not feature until this point.

Alfa Romeo scored just 16 points this year, finishing in the bottom two for the second time in three seasons, after climbing to sixth in 2022.

Asked about the changes that will be seen across the next 12 months for the Sauber Group, Alunni Bravi said: "Of course, we are working really hard in the transformation process. We are still a small team, an independent one, but the challenge is big, so we are working to develop every area.

"Every department. It's not just a matter of size, it's a matter of finding the right people, as Sir Jackie Stewart said, people will be crucial.

"And the most difficult challenge for us is to identify the very best professional and to have the right process. Of course, the challenge is big.

"Everybody that we can buy, but we cannot buy time, and we are fully aware about this challenge. And I think to manage the expectations will be one of the most demanding things."

An idea that Formula 1 teams previously rejected because of paranoia is being pushed through as part of a plan to help protect drivers in extreme conditions.

F1 was lucky to avoid a driver suffering serious consequences at this year’s Qatar Grand Prix, either through illness or an accident, as the race took place with the air temperature still over 30 degrees and high humidity, which left drivers estimating cockpit temperatures of up to 80 degrees Celsius.

Esteban Ocon vomited in his helmet, Alex Albon was checked for acute heat exposure, Logan Sargeant retired from the race because intense dehydration left him feeling sick and Lance Stroll even claimed he was "passing out" through many of the track’s high-speed corners.

The FIA quickly announced after that weekend it would seriously evaluate what could be done to help drivers in such conditions, with two key action points settled on.

The first change is what the rulemakers have described as a driver cooling scoop, feeding air into the cockpit, although this will not work like IndyCar’s small device at the top of that car’s Aeroscreen.

FIA F1 director Nikolas Tombazis described it as a “slot that can fit under the chassis”, and this positioning is why it has previously been opposed by teams.

“The reason if had been rejected in the past was because people were worried it would be sucking off boundary layer stuff,” said Tombazis when asked by The Race to explain how it would be integrated into the car.

“And all of this would be used for some sort of indirect aero advantage and people were making up various, slightly paranoid hypotheses about what can be used.

“It’s just really allowing that scoop to exist in a certain area and giving some maximum dimensions for it.”

Airflow being fed into the underfloor is the crucial part of ground-effect F1 cars so it is easy to imagine a slotted component under the chassis interfering with the aerodynamics to a degree, and either causing problems or opportunities for exploitation.

It would be a surprise if some teams do not at least try to find a way to manipulate the provision for a slotted part of the chassis for some kind of sporting gain.

As far as the FIA’s concerned, this is a minor factor. The planned incorporation of the design into the regulations is just going to allow the cooling scoop to exist in a specific area with maximum, defined dimensions.

“Everyone’s learned their lesson and thinks a bit less selfishly,” said Tombazis.

The scoop will hopefully improve ventilation although it will not be cool, fresh air that's redirected at the driver.

The options are ultimately limited compared to a closed cockpit car like, for instance, the Hypercars run at the Le Mans 24 Hours and in the World Endurance Championship.

Actual air conditioning is allowed in those cars, although some teams only use ducting from the outside – into the helmet, or the seating area around the driver.

The second part of the plan to help drivers in extreme heat will kick in when a certain threshold is met for both temperature and humidity, and may only be applied to certain tracks with high G-force loading.

When this threshold is met, the FIA will declare the race is in extreme conditions - like when a wet race is declared, for example. That will then trigger an increased weight allowance by around two kilos.

This has not been put into the regulations yet, but it is the intention. The idea is it will be mandatory for teams to use this extra allowance for the purpose of cooling the driver.

The FIA has things like cooling vests in mind, such as the type that are a bit hit-and-miss in IndyCar at the moment but are improving all the time, although this is still to be fully investigated.

It will be critical to see exactly how this is policed, though, because it may not be tightly regulated at first.

“If we tell teams ‘you have two kilos, you must use it for this purpose’ it will be in their own interest to do so because that will keep the drivers cool, focused and not lose any performance,” Tombazis insisted.

“Hopefully that will be the solution.”

Tombazis said the FIA has wondered whether specifying exactly what would have to be fitted is the way to go, but felt that “if we start trying to standardise a system to a tender and all of that, it would be quite a slow process”.

But if the teams do end up with some freedom with the extra two kilos it may leave too much responsibility with the competitor.

Tombazis has said “we want to make it clear that it's not something that you can use for any form of dodgy advantage”.

The only way to do that without just trusting the teams, which could be naïve, is to get more prescriptive.

“We need to work out some of the details,” Tombazis admitted.

“It's really for the purpose of that [driver cooling] and it's mandatory.

“You could put the ballast in the seat but you'd be a bit of an idiot. Because your driver would… in Qatar I think we saw, apart from the situation after the race, drivers towards the latter part of the race make more mistakes.

“That was clearly not in the teams’ interest.”

Sauber has renamed its Formula 1 team “Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber” as part of new naming rights deals following the end of its Alfa Romeo partnership.

The change has been confirmed in the 2024 entry list that has been released by the FIA, with Sauber announcing that streaming company Kick, an existing major partner for the team, has secured naming rights to the chassis for the next two seasons.

From 2026 the team will be known as Audi, but until then two companies under the same Easygo umbrella — title partner Stake was already involved since last year — will be part of the team’s official name.

Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund is taking full ownership of McLaren Group as part of long-term plans to secure a partnership with a global industry giant.

Sky News has learnt that Mumtalakat, the Gulf state's investment fund, is on the brink of a deal with McLaren's remaining minority shareholders to convert their equity into warrant-like instruments.

The new contracts will have the economic rights to benefit from a future 'liquidity event' such as an initial public offering of McLaren but would not be classed as shares.

One banking source said they expected that the agreement could be announced later this week.

It would involve roughly 20 per cent of the equity in McLaren being converted into the new contracts, and leave the state of Bahrain as the Formula 1 team-owning group's sole shareholder.

McLaren Racing, the division which directly houses the F1 and other racing operations, does have its own external shareholders following a deal struck during the pandemic to raise capital.

The deal to be signed this week underlines the continued confidence and leadership of Mumtalakat in driving McLaren's turnaround, according to one insider.

The Woking-based company's convoluted capital structure has acted as a deterrent to global automotive groups' ability to structure a long-term partnership with it in recent years.

Simplifying that structure is likely to pave the way for a technology partnership with an automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in the coming years as McLaren transitions towards becoming a hybrid and electric vehicle company.

Earlier this year, Mumtalakat acquired the McLaren shareholdings of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund and Ares Management, a major US-based financial investor.

More recently, the Bahrain-based fund was reported to have injected another £80m into the company, which makes the Artura super-car.

McLaren was hit by delays to the delivery of the Artura, which - while garnering positive reviews - has required a series of technical upgrades.

Last year, McLaren named former Ferrari executive Michael Leiters as the boss of its road-car division.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the company was forced into a far-reaching restructuring that saw hundreds of jobs axed and substantial sums raised in equity and debt to repair its balance sheet.

In its racing division, which includes the Formula 1 cars driven this year by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, McLaren has witnessed a turnaround under Zak Brown, who leads that arm of the company, as well.

McLaren has also undertaken a series of corporate transactions since the start of the pandemic, when it sought a government loan - a request which was rebuffed by ministers.

Mr Walsh has overseen the sale of a stake in McLaren Racing to a separate group of investors, as well as a £170m sale-and-leaseback of its spectacular Surrey headquarters. In 2021, it also sold McLaren Applied Technologies, which generates revenue from sales to corporate customers.

Founded in 1963 by Bruce McLaren, the group's name is among the most famous in British motorsport. During half a century of competing in F1, it has won the constructors' championship eight times, while its drivers have included the likes of Mika Hakkinen, Lewis Hamilton, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.

In total, the team has won 180 Grands Prix, three Indianapolis 500s and the Le Mans 24 Hours on its debut.

The company saw its separate divisions reunited following the departure in 2017 of Ron Dennis, the veteran McLaren boss who had steered its F1 team through the most successful period in its history. Mr Dennis offloaded his stake in a £275m deal following a bitter dispute with fellow shareholders.

Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund is taking full ownership of McLaren Group as part of long-term plans to secure a partnership with a global industry giant.

Guenther Steiner has left his role as Team Principal of Haas F1 Team, with Director of Engineering Ayao Komatsu stepping up to replace him.

Steiner has led the team since the American squad entered F1 in 2016. The Italian was F1’s third longest-serving team principal, behind Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Mercedes’ Toto Wolff, and a popular figure in the sport after he took a starring role in Netflix’s Drive To Survive series.

The team enjoyed genuine highs while under his guidance, including points on debut in Australia in 2016, a maiden pole position in Brazil last year and a fifth-placed finish in the constructors’ championship in 2018.

However, last year was tough for them. Haas finished last in the constructors’ championship, a drop of two places on the previous season, as they struggled to transform one-lap pace in qualifying into points-scoring race pace on Sunday.

After discussions between Steiner and owner Gene Haas over the winter, it was decided that Steiner would leave the organisation with immediate effect.

His replacement Komatsu, 47, has worked with Haas since they debuted in F1 in 2016, starting as Chief Race Engineer and rising to Director of Engineering.

He has over 20 years of experience in Formula 1, working across engineering and management roles with British American Racing, plus a long stint at Renault before he joined Haas.

Haas say Komatsu will take responsibility for the team’s overall strategy, and ultimately on-track performance, with a brief to maximise the team’s potential through employee empowerment and structural process and efficiency.

With Komatsu focused on the on-track performance, Haas plan to recruit a European-based Chief Operating Officer who will look after all non-competition matters and departments, including areas such as HR, admin, finance, marketing and communications.

Owner Gene Haas said: “I’d like to start by extending my thanks to Guenther Steiner for all his hard work over the past decade and I wish him well for the future.

“Moving forward as an organization, it was clear we need to improve our on-track performances. In appointing Ayao Komatsu as Team Principal we fundamentally have engineering at the heart of our management.

“We have had some successes, but we need to be consistent in delivering results that help us reach our wider goals as an organization. We need to be efficient with the resources we have but improving our design and engineering capability is key to our success as a team.

“I’m looking forward to working with Ayao and fundamentally ensuring that we maximize our potential – this truly reflects my desire to compete properly in Formula 1.”

Komatsu said: “I’m naturally very excited to have the opportunity to be Team Principal at Haas. Having been with the team since its track-debut back in 2016 I’m obviously passionately invested in its success in Formula 1. I’m looking forward to leading our program and the various competitive operations internally to ensure we can build a structure that produces improved on-track performances.

“We are a results-based business at the end of the day, and we obviously haven’t been competitive enough recently which has been a source of frustration.

“We have amazing support from Gene and our various partners – particularly MoneyGram, and we want to mirror their enthusiasm with an improved on-track product. We have a great team of people across Kannapolis, Banbury and Maranello and together I know we can reach the kind of performances we’re capable of.”

“He [Gene Haas] doesn’t want to sell,” Andretti told the Associated Press. “If he wants to sell, tell him to call me. That makes it a lot easier for us. The last conversation I had with him was probably around October or November. He told me he didn’t care if he’s running in the back, [he] says it works for him anyway.”