New qualifying

[J.Clark]

Vettel's comments:
http://www.crash.net/f1/news/228213/1/vettel-no-driver-likes-new-qualifying.html

I almost chuckled aloud at one point.  Not to poke fun at Seb, but the thought of a jumbled grid popped into my mind with a lot of blue flag waving by the marshals on the first few laps, thus wiping out any randomness that occurs.

[J.Clark]

This is what I learned from the article posted on Crash.net this morning.

The session will be run as follows
a) From 14.00 to 14.16 (Q1) all cars will be permitted on the track. Seven minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session.

The same procedure will then apply after 8m30s, 10m0s, 11m30s, 13m0s and 14m30s leaving sixteen cars eligible to continue. At the end of the session all drivers on the track may complete the lap they are on and, once these final laps have been completed, the driver last in the classification may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. Lap times achieved by the fifteen remaining cars will then be deleted.

b) From 14.24 to 14.39 (Q2) the fifteen remaining cars will be permitted on the track. Six minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. The same procedure will then apply after 7m30s, 9m0s, 10m30s, 12m0s and 13m30s leaving nine cars eligible to continue.

At the end of the session all drivers on the track may complete the lap they are on and, once these final laps have been completed, the driver last in the classification may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. Lap times achieved by the eight remaining cars will then be deleted.

c) From 14.46 to 15.00 (Q3) the eight remaining cars will be permitted on the track. Five minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session. The same procedure will then apply after 6m30s, 8m0s, 9m30s, 11m0s and 12m30s leaving two cars eligible to continue.

At the end of the session any driver on the track may complete the lap he is on and, once any final lap has been completed, the overall classification will be established.


The above procedure is based upon 22 cars being officially eligible to take part in the Event. If 24 cars are eligible eight will be excluded after Q1 and Q2, if 26 cars are eligible nine cars will be excluded after Q1 and Q2, and so on if fewer cars are eligible. If necessary, the intervals between the sessions and eliminations will be adjusted to ensure Q3 remains unchanged.

I would seem, based upon the way it is worded, that a car on a "hot lap" would be eliminated prior to completing that lap.  The wording suggests that only a time posted for a lap completed prior to the 90 second marks.  Laps started before the checkered flag in each session would be allowed however for the two drivers still on track.

[Jericoke]

I would seem, based upon the way it is worded, that a car on a "hot lap" would be eliminated prior to completing that lap.  The wording suggests that only a time posted for a lap completed prior to the 90 second marks.  Laps started before the checkered flag in each session would be allowed however for the two drivers still on track.

At first glance, this sounds like there is going to be a lot of traffic during Q.  A car can't sit in the pits and hope their time is good enough, as there's no time to get on track and react if your time slips.

That's the point though.  Cars needs to be on track, following different strategies.  Leaders will be caught up by midfield cars qualifying with enough fuel for several laps.

It may be chaotic, but that's the opposite of the processional racing most agree is killing the sport.

I like it 

[cosworth151]

I guess we'll find out next week-end.

[John S]

Gonna be a bunfight down at the end of pitlane before each Quali begins.        

[Irisado]

This is a terrible change to the rules.  It's confusing, difficult to explain, and illogical.  Qualifying is one of the few things which wasn't broken, so they went and changed it.  Crazy!

[cosworth151]

I can think of one good thing about starting it now. Hopefully it will be gone by April & the European races.

[Jericoke]

This is a terrible change to the rules.  It's confusing, difficult to explain, and illogical.  Qualifying is one of the few things which wasn't broken, so they went and changed it.  Crazy!

More people watch the race than qualifying.

There is room for improvement in a spectator sport when your audience isn't watching.

[Andy B]

This is a terrible change to the rules.  It's confusing, difficult to explain, and illogical.  Qualifying is one of the few things which wasn't broken, so they went and changed it.  Crazy!

More people watch the race than qualifying.

There is room for improvement in a spectator sport when your audience isn't watching.

I watch qualifying but then I used to watch Sunday morning warm up too!

[Irisado]

More people watch the race than qualifying.

There is room for improvement in a spectator sport when your audience isn't watching.

That's correlation not causation Jeri .

You can't say that people are not watching qualifying because it's not interesting enough in the current format, especially when there's little strong evidence to support that.  Indeed, I would venture to say that more people have always watched the race relative to qualifying, because the race is the most important part of a Grand Prix weekend.

[cosworth151]

Gutiarrez & Haas were the first victims of the craptastic new quali format. Esteban was on a lap that would have movevd him to Q2 when the clock ran out.

Also, the Manor pit crew sent Haryanto out of the garage & straight into Grosjean's side, damaging the undertray of the Haas. Both Hass cars did beat both Manors.

The on-line T&S doesn't show which drivers have been eliminated, either. The one on the TV feed did finally start showing a countdown beside the last driver's name.

This is what I got up at 2 in the morning for?

[cosworth151]

There were no cars at all on track for the last minute and a half of Q2. Gee, this is really working out well, isn't it?

[cosworth151]

5:30 left in Q3 & everybody except the two Mercs have given up & gotten out of their cars. This mess has to be gone before Bahrain.

[cosworth151]

3:00 left in Q3 and it's all over. Nobody is even in a car.

[Andy B]

The whole thing was rubbish the only good bit was Lewis's pole lap quite stunning. How about in Q1 after 7 minutes remove the top order and let the bottom order sort it out alone.
Or
Just leave it alone if it ain't broke etc.