I should start by saying I like current qualifying and don’t have any problem with it; but I was wondering how you could organically encourage the development of aerodynamics that function well in ‘dirty’ air, so wondered if this might do it:
- cars are lined up at the end of the pits and have to leave at certain defined intervals, but close together
- on their out laps, they have to drive to a delta - like on VSC - until they get to the final corner from which they can start to push
- this means everyone starts their laps relatively close to another car; the faster ones will likely have to overtake someone but everyone will have to deal with a certain amount of ‘dirty air’
- this therefore encourages cars that work well in these conditions - even more so since if you don’t do a good job in quali you’ll need to make up places in the race
- it has the added benefits of being: i. ‘exciting’ with overtakes ii. Unpredictable with mistakes more likely iii. And where the driver skill in managing the traffic will really make a difference
- you could potentially have two runs each part of quali but equally could just have a one part quali with all the cars in throughout and hence something like six runs
I haven’t fully thought it through from angles yet, but it occurred to me that if you reduce the advantages of having w car that runs well in ‘ideal’ conditions - with no traffic - and reward cars that overtake easily and can manage the wake of another car, you push car development in that direction.
Interested to hear thoughts.