As F1 seeks to at least double the number of Sprints each season, drivers feel it is the wrong way to go.

As a footnote to the statement issued by the FIA following last week's meeting of the F1 Commission, it was confirmed that the sport's powers that be are seeking to increase the number of Sprints from 6 to 12 next season.

The move was "based on the demand from fans and promoters" we were told, and F1 CEO, Stefano Domenicali subsequently confirmed the intention, even though it wasn't that long ago that he was pushing for two-day race weekends, insisting that Fridays were a waste of time as nobody really attended.

"Everyone wants to have it," he told reporters of the Sprint, "but we want to wait to see the effect on the track.

"It's also a commercial opportunity that we want to discuss," he added, as if the thought had never occurred to anyone.

The briefest of looks at social media made clear that many fans - especially those very fans that the sport is keen to interact with via the medium - are not only against the idea of increasing the number of Sprints but against the whole concept of the mini-me events.

And as it happens, a number of drivers are not too keen on the idea either.

"I'm open-minded about it," said Carlos Sainz. "I think the sprint format still needs to be fine-tuned and improved, given the fact that I think sometimes the sprint reveals too much of what's going to happen on Sunday. If we can improve that and make the sprint a bit different to what we see on Sunday, I would be open to having more sprint races," he added.

"Unfortunately, that will mean quite a bit more workload for the driver with sprint qualifying and the Friday being busier, the Saturday being a lot busier," he continued. "So I think FOM and F1 also need to adapt a bit their race weekend format with the amount of media and the amount of PR commitments that we have, to give us also a bit of time to prepare for these races, because nowadays the last few years have been extremely demanding for the driver in that sense.

"So, no offence here at all," he grinned at the assembled media, "but you cannot imagine with the amount of sponsors F1 teams have nowadays, with the amount of interviews we do, the amount of marketing commitments we have.

"I think I'm open-minded to produce more timed sessions, more show on the track, but we need to fine-tune things away from the track because that 24-race calendar with, let's say, 24 sprints, imagine if we one day end up there, will be very demanding for everyone in the public."

"The only thing I'll add is that I actually really like the sprint weekends," said the Spaniard's former teammate, Charles Leclerc, "but I still believe that it should be a minority of races and having it as a standardised weekend in the future, if that's the plan at any time, I don't think is the right thing.

"At least I wouldn't like it that way," he admitted, "but I'll drive anyway and adapt to it, but I think six is probably the sweet spot."