The trouble with pole is

[Andy B]

its now tactical and not who can put in the quickest lap.
Are the two Ferrari’s that far apart or on different strategies?
It’s possible that a team who gets into the top ten by good fortune could go for low fuel and hit the top of the grid which would be high profile for its sponsors.

So how good was the BMW lap? We will not know until the first pit stop.

I would prefer to see each team declare their start fuel in secret to the stewards and have quali on low fuel.

[Dare]

I agree Andy,the cars should be pretty equal so
one driver shouldn't be 1 second faster unless
your Alonso.

[Ian]

I've an idea, why can't we have 1hr qual, with each driver having 12 laps, that's an out lap, a fast lap and an in lap, they could each go out 4 times and with low fuel we could actually see who is the fastest driver, then as Andy suggests they could all give the stewards a sealed note stating their starting fuel load. Anybody think Herr Mosley will go for that? hehe

[Steven Roy]

Let me see if I understand this Ian.  You want the fastest car and driver combination to be on pole rather than have that position go to the driver with the least fuel in the tank.  What has that to do with motor racing chess? 

[Ian]

Thats strange Steven, I was under the impression that the fastest driver did get pole, have I been mistaken in this.  yourself

[Andy B]

How about!!

Quali 1 starts with all teams on full tanks the more laps you do the lighter you get the more chance of progressing to Quali 2.

No fuel added for Quali 2 or Quali 3 and for those who make Quali 3 a declaration to the stewards  of your start fuel. The more laps you do the lighter you get the better chance of pole.

We benefit by more laps being run with the cars getting faster.

Seems straight forward to me can I have Max's job? 

[John S]

Only trouble is just how many tyres will they have to use Andy?

[Scott]

They get three or four sets for each race, so why not just use those ones and scrub them in...the teams can choose to use the tires twice for q, so they can save a set of stickers for the race.

My wish for qualfiying (and was seriously proposed by Tony Purnell a few years ago) is to damn the expense and have a couple heat races to settle pole - 15-20 laps, no pit stop.  Winner = pole and so-on, down the list.

[Steven Roy]

There was absolutely nothing worng with the 12 lap one hour format.  If the empty track at the start was such a big problem give them 15 laps or cut the time.   Don't re-engineer something that provided genuine excitement and interest 99 times to give dull, pointless pole positions

[John S]

They get three or four sets for each race, so why not just use those ones and scrub them in...the teams can choose to use the tires twice for q, so they can save a set of stickers for the race.

But in an hour with almost constant running just how many laps will they get in? It seems to me that there will be a lot of mileage on the tyres, certainly a lot more than scrubbing.

[Scott]

Whoops, we lost the thread there.  Sorry if I wasn't clear.

My first paragraph was a response to your question about how many tires would they use.  If it was the 12 lap formula, they would have put in 3-4 laps on each set of tires.

My second paragraph was to say that I would prefer heat races to single-car-on-track qualifying - obviously they would have to use another set of tires for the heat race.