Congrats to Bernie & Co for changing from the drab single lap qualifying of the past few years, to what should be a vast improvement, with one exception.
The first two 15 minute sessions with 6 drivers being eliminated after each worked great(and would have been even better if many drivers hadn't left it till the last minute to try to set a time, but its their choice(!)) But the final 20 minute session today could have been cut to 5-6 minutes, as due to the rules you have to start this session with the amount of fuel that you want to start the race with, and you get to replace any fuel that you use up during this qualifying session. So the 20 minutes was largely relegated to 12-15 minutes of driving around the circuit burning up as much fuel as possible, only for most drivers to leave it till the very end, before making any effort to set a time. By this time most drivers probably had a similar fuel load, so why not allow each team to declare its race start fuel load before this session starts, then allow them to run on near empty tanks(for the fastest possible times) during this qualifying session,then they could refill up to the declared amount afterwards, that way we'd probably have seen more effort at trying to set fastest times and less time driving around in formation. At one stage during the final 20 minute session, Barrichello was lapping 4 seconds a lap faster than his team-mate Button! They could then cut the final session to 10-12 minutes, since with only ten cars and with engines having to last 2 races, there's little chance at most grand prix that the cars will tear around at full speed for 20 minutes, but there would be more action if the session was a more compact 10-12 minutes.
Martin
HI Martin and firstly welcome to the forum...glad to see you on here and please feel free to post many times .
Oh boy how do I agree with you on this point though...When Kimi had his incident and the session was stopped ( apart from the initial moanng like hell cos DC was out on his fast lap at the time and had time to get another one in ) when you saw how many big names HADNT infact got a banker in ..you just knew things were going to get pretty exciting...same really for the second 15 mins....but as you said Martin ... Buttplug going what 4 seconds SLOWER than Rubhino - come on what was all that about ....( and for those of you that have your coverage from ITV and Martin Brundell - teams getting their 'Tiger tokens' LOL yeap ok at THAT point I DID lose the plot haha) 10 min or 15 min final pole shootout THATS what it needs...
Hi Martin and welcome to the forum - what a great initial post from you, right on the point ! I hope we are going to see more from you
I could hardly agree with you more. The new format is just so much better than anything we had in the previous few years. But driving around just to burn fuel is close to idiotic ! There could be a couple of solutions to this, why don't they make 4 sessions and drop the stupid race setup rule completely for qualifying. Why can't they change their strategy after qualifying ? I would like to see a realistic comparison between the cars without any speculation about setup and fuel quantity
But if it is not changed, I can live with it - it was certainly an exciting qualifying overall
Martin, you are not alone with your view on the new qualifying format - now british eurosport has submitted a suggestion to the FIA :
Prior to the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, FIA President Max Mosley voiced his concern of politicians around the world uniting to stop the Formula One championship due to concerns of an imminent fuel crisis, and the final qualifying only fuelled those concerns.
While the two knock-out sessions were invigorating, though slightly confusing, the final twenty-minute session was disappointing, with the ten remaining drivers simply burning off fuel, unnecessarily, before launching an attack on a pole time.
In total, 340kg of fuel were burnt off and it is for this reason that Eurosport.com/uk is proposing an alternative to FIA President Max Mosley, the teams, and you, the fans.
QUALIFYING ALTERNATIVE
1. First and second sessions as before.
2. Teams fuel ten remaining cars with a pre-determined amount of fuel.
3. Drivers have a maximum of three separate one-lap qualifying attempts (Total of nine laps - Out lap, fast lap and an in lap)
4. Drivers may conduct just one flying lap, thereby saving six laps of fuel, or use all three.
5. Drivers hampered by a yellow or red flag whilst on their first or second flying lap will have an extra lap added to their final run (Out lap, two fast laps and an in lap)
6. Drivers would start the Grand Prix with the amount of fuel remaining in the reservoir.
This system guarantees that one or more drivers will be on track at all time, as nine laps at 1min 30secs per lap accounts to 15 minutes of the 20-minute session. Drivers can also decided to burn off fuel during their out and in laps if they feel that the car is too heavy to get pole, or save fuel by going slowly, thus improving their fuel level for the race.
It is speculated that the current qualifying session could be modified after the San Marino Grand Prix, replacing the current system with a two-part session instead, but out system responds to concerns voiced by Max Mosley on Monday.
"If we had let them have empty tanks, everyone would just wait in their garage saving engines," Moseley warned. "You would have a flurry of activity at the end, but for the first ten minutes nothing much would happen. At least this way, they have to be on the track.''
By completing three flying laps, the drivers will be forced to be on track during the entire session, without wasting fuel unnecessarily.
What does everybody think of this idea ?