New qualifying format...

[Vasconia]

Simple solution. Back to last year's system, but allow an extra PU per driver that is only for use in quali!!

Let's see how fast the teams can go when they're not worried about their engine detonating.

And allow them to change setup between quali and race.

Its even more simple, give them more tyres, or better, exclusive tyres for the qualy . Old system+exclusive tyres= lots of cars during the three qualys.

[ChrisDanger]

Back to reality...

I'm interested to see how the first two sessions go this weekend. I'm kinda expecting a similarly dull Q3, but it seems some teams were caught out in Q1 and Q3 in Melbourne, by not getting out to finish laps before they were eliminated. I think these sessions might be handled a bit better in Bahrain and make the sessions a bit better. Perhaps the nature of the format makes this extremely difficult anyway...

[basti313]

Back to reality...

I'm interested to see how the first two sessions go this weekend. I'm kinda expecting a similarly dull Q3, but it seems some teams were caught out in Q1 and Q3 in Melbourne, by not getting out to finish laps before they were eliminated. I think these sessions might be handled a bit better in Bahrain and make the sessions a bit better. Perhaps the nature of the format makes this extremely difficult anyway...

Yes, Q3 will be the same, maybe with an extra run from Ferrari if they do not plan to use the SS in the race twice.
Maybe we are lucky and there is some wind and, thus, sand on the track. In this case the track will develop fast during the session and make it difficult to do a single run at the beginning of Q1 and Q2.

[Moose]

I can't see how Q1 and 2 can go any differently. As we already calculated, teams can not get out soon enough to run a second lap. If you're in the back 4-5 cars at the end of the first laps, you simply will not be able to set another time.

[Henk]

I can't see how Q1 and 2 can go any differently. As we already calculated, teams can not get out soon enough to run a second lap. If you're in the back 4-5 cars at the end of the first laps, you simply will not be able to set another time.

The Manors were out too early and should have set their only laps just before the 7 minute mark. The Haas cars should have either done the same or have the time to turn the cars around. The Saubers were too late coming in and going out for a second lap.

The teams in Q3 that didn't do a second lap should have waited as long as possible to set their laps.

McLaren, Ricciardo and Kimi burned through too many tires because of their own mistakes.

If one of the Mercs had made a mistake in Q2, they would have been the guys that couldn't do a second run. That would have made it more exiting.

Pretty much every team made mistakes. They were right to let it stay for another race. There should still be tweaks because the last 2 or 3 minutes are still going to be empty, but Australia was for a large part the team's fault.

[jknights]

I think it wasn't broken.

No one complained about how Qualifying was before.

Just turn it back to what it was.

I agree, fundamentally the recent qualifying rules worked well. The problem is not in the qualifying rules - it is in the technical rules. At the moment we have cars whose qualifying setups are optimized for the race. Due to things like the gearbox/engine rules, fixed front:rear bias, restricted DRS usage, etc there is limited ability to tune the car for outright qualifying pace. Tuning the car for qualifying pace would be at the detriment of race pace, but hopefully some teams would take a gamble occasionally and shoot for pole. This would be another way to mix up the grid as a fast Saturday car would be slow on Sunday and vice versa.

I also think the technical rules are much easier to change. The teams are often happy to have more freedom and to the majority of the fans, small tweaks of non-visual technical rules do not matter so they don't need to be explained.

Rules like 3 tyres in qualifying, no refuelling, fixed gearing have done a good job of making it harder to find the balance between the perfect saturday and sunday setup, but I think the technical rules could definitely go much further in this direction.

If it aint broken then dont fix it.
Unfortunately you have a MrFixit running F1 rather than a committee which would make for slower but mor considered change.

[Dazed1]

Qualifying is for wusses! Invert last race result for this race start. Twice the carnage, and all on the first lap! Makes as much sense as inverting qualifying order, and cars that are out of the points in the middle of a race can figure out exotic ways to retire early for next race start positions. (Here's hoping Bernie doesn't read this.

[giantfan10]

Simple solution. Back to last year's system, but allow an extra PU per driver that is only for use in quali!!

Let's see how fast the teams can go when they're not worried about their engine detonating.

And allow them to change setup between quali and race.

Its even more simple, give them more tyres, or better, exclusive tyres for the qualy . Old system+exclusive tyres= lots of cars during the three qualys.

Jean Todt agrees with you =D>

FIA President Jean Todt says that extra tyres were requested for the final segment of qualifying this weekend, but official supplier Pirelli could not ready them in time.
"Q3 was clearly disappointing, because nothing happened in the final minutes. So we thought we could solve this by asking Pirelli to supply one extra set of tyres for each car in Q3.
"But Pirelli said that wasn't possible for Bahrain, logistically. It might be possible for China though"
"The teams wanted to revert everything after Melbourne, but it seems that we could optimise Q1 and Q2 a bit, with maybe an extra minute before the first elimination, and do Q3 differently."
"We live in a world with too much over-reacting," he commented.

HMMMM maybe an extra set in Q3 would be good solution even though i prefer the old quali style.

[Sevach]

Q1 is okay right lol.

[fenix4life]

OMG Huldenberg understands the concept.
You need to drive to gain a place

[hemichromis]

well a 14 minute Q2 and 1 minute early start of elimination.

Great idea

[i70q7m7ghw]

6 minutes to go in Q2, 1 car on track and no others go out. Terrible terrible system. I won't be watching qualifying anymore if this stays, I'm not spending 2 thirds of the sessions watching an empty track.

[Thunder]

FIA President Jean Todt says that extra tyres were requested for the final segment of qualifying this weekend, but official supplier Pirelli could not ready them in time.
"Q3 was clearly disappointing, because nothing happened in the final minutes. So we thought we could solve this by asking Pirelli to supply one extra set of tyres for each car in Q3.
"But Pirelli said that wasn't possible for Bahrain, logistically. It might be possible for China though"
"The teams wanted to revert everything after Melbourne, but it seems that we could optimise Q1 and Q2 a bit, with maybe an extra minute before the first elimination, and do Q3 differently."
"We live in a world with too much over-reacting," he commented.

HMMMM maybe an extra set in Q3 would be good solution even though i prefer the old quali style.

Looking at today's Quali they would need to supply one extra set of Tires for Q2 too.....

Just get rid of it.

[i70q7m7ghw]

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.

Get rid of it, it's rubbish.

[Sevach]

One friend of mine just said this to me:
"Bernie Ecclestone is the only 'director' i know that pushes forward stupid idea after stupid idea and is never fired".