New qualifying

[Scott]

Good ole Jacques Villeneuve has jumped into the fray, suggesting that F1 drivers should not get involved with any F1 governance discussions.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/123697/villeneuve-f1-drivers-should-shut-up

In one sense he is right, there isn't much breadth of knowledge or experience with a grid full of drivers averaging 22 or 23 years old.  But I think with the drivers of F1 being the face of the sport that the fans and sponsors see and get to know, they actually have more responsibility than JV gives them credit for. 

We all know Bernie has made a heap of poor decisions when he chooses the mighty dollar over ways to make the sport more popular (read - exciting).  Ironically Jean has made a heap of poor decisions in an attempt to save the sport money.  In the last decade Bernie has only figured out ways to mine the sport for more money, not really bring more into it while Max and now Jean have only cost the teams massive amounts of R&D in simplistic ways to save on some production costs. 

Both branches of governance have failed and should be drastically changed.

[J.Clark]

I agree almost completely Scott.

This quote from the article shows clearly that he sees the drivers as an irrelevant voice in the matter. 
"The way the drivers have been complaining is terrible for F1," he told Autosport. "It's not their problem."

His time in the drivers' seat was in a different era.  I wonder how he would like the system under which qualifying was run for the past ten years.  It seems to me that in this case, the voice of the drivers is simply amplifying that concerns of fans.

With that in mind, he forgets that drivers, regardless of their age, were fans first.  How many of them would have been as excited about getting into F1, if 15 years ago, the current qualifying system was being used?  F1 is, as it has been for decades, the pinnacle of motor sports, and probably will remain such, but with things going the way they are, it will be so only because of the shear, unparalleled speed of the cars, but that will not by itself keep fans around.

When the fan base shrinks, the money spigot weens to a drip, then the sponsors will dwindle . . . 

There is less going on on-track during qualifying now than there was 20 years ago when it was all done in the final ten minutes of the only session.  I am not yet one of them, but I have friends who don't even watch the qualifying any more.

[Irisado]

Villeneuve is being a hypocrite.  I well remember his vociferous complaints about the 1998 grooved tyres and narrower cars that went on incessantly during winter testing in 1997/98, until the FIA hauled him over the coals.  He consistently went out of his way to rebel and to be a maverick in terms of what he said, how he conducted himself, and even how he dressed.  For him to now turn around and tell today's drivers to tow the line is hypocrisy of the highest order.

I liked the one lap qualifyingthey had one year{I think 2002}
Get it right you could win pole flub it and youcould start down the grid.

The single lap qualifying was run from 2003 until 2005 inclusive.  It had the advantage of ensuring that every lap was seen, but it disadvantaged all those running early in the session, typically the lower half of the grid.  2002 was the old 12 laps in one hour qualifying session which was first implemented in 1996.

As for the return to the old qualifying system.  Thank goodness for that.