i think the thing that pisses me off so much about the suggestion that f1 cuts practice sessions in favour of more sprints (and therefore also sprint quali) is that the practice sessions are not there for the audience. it's not some super special moral superiority oh you don't watch the practice sessions, you're not a real fan competition, it is a fundamental part of the sport. it's there for the drivers and teams to set up the car and try new things out, and test certain things for their strategies. it has a massive impact on how they then run the car in the actual race, and by trying to get rid of it because, very fucking understandably fewer people watch it, f1 is effectively reducing the amount of actual sport in this sport. which is insane. you cannot rely on simulation alone for these things, multiple drivers have pulled out laps that go beyond simulated ideals, multiple drivers have performed in ways that the engineers simply could not anticipate or predict. these practice sessions matter. they are part of what makes f1 an actual sport, and not just some motorised version of wwe. let f1 be a sport