How would quali work in 2010 if there were 28 cars?

[oobster]

As per title - let's assume for a minute that there will be 28 cars on the F1 grid in 2010. Unlikely, but possible.

How would qualifying work?

Slowest 8 drop out in quali 1, next 8 in quali 2 then 12 left for quali 3?

[Marc W]

It'll depend if they stay at 26 cars in the race as they did the last time there was 28 cars or if they let all 28 race. If it's 26 cars, I guess the slowest 2 in the first session won't race but hopefully they'll just let all 28 race.

Edited by Marc W on Wednesday 30th September 18:24

[oobster]

Ah, resurrect the 107% rule you mean? I hope they don't do that.

[Marc W]

No, nothing to do with the 107% rule. In 1994 the last time 28 cars raced, the slowest 2 cars in qualifying didn't race even if that was only just off the pole time. (Not that it was ever that close!)

The 107% rule was something bought in to try and stop people entering with absolutely hopeless cars and then getting in the way. It applied even if there were less than 26 on the grid.

If you go back even further we used to have pre-qualifying where the slowest cars had a session to determine which ones would be allowed to enter Qualifying which I believe had a maximum of 30 slots. I

[TheArchitect]

I saw an article explaining this the pother day, ill have alook, but bascially the same as this year

[hot metal]

It was the Forti team that brought about the 107% rule I think ,awfull.

[Teppic]

oobster said:

As per title - let's assume for a minute that there will be 28 cars on the F1 grid in 2010. Unlikely, but possible.

How would qualifying work?

Slowest 8 drop out in quali 1, next 8 in quali 2 then 12 left for quali 3?

Probably slowest 9 in Q1, slowest 9 in Q2 then the top 10 shoot-out.

With 9 cars going out in Q1 and Q2 there is much more scope for some big scalps to be had, and potentially some good fightbacks from the nether regions of the grid.

[SoliD]

They have edited the rules for next year so that 8 teams drop out in the first part of quali and 8 in the second, so that there is always 10 cars in the final shootout, I would suspect they would just increase this to 9 as said earlier.

[fatboy69]

Bring back pre-qualifying to whittle down the numbers or, better still, lets have a 28 car grid....

What a sight that would be.

Even better if they changed the rules so that the engines were all 3.5 litre V10's!

[TheArchitect]

Should introduce success ballast to all cars imo.

[MartG]

fatboy69 said:

better still, lets have a 28 car grid....

What a sight that would be.

Recently we haven't seen the problems with cars so slow they get lapped several times during a race, so a 28 car grid may not be a problem. However if we go back a few years it was common for the leaders to lap at least half the field, so if that were to happen again the extra traffic could cause an issue.

There might also be a problem in Q1 with drivers unable to get a clear lap due to traffic

[Project 644]

MartG said:

fatboy69 said:

better still, lets have a 28 car grid....

What a sight that would be.

Recently we haven't seen the problems with cars so slow they get lapped several times during a race, so a 28 car grid may not be a problem. However if we go back a few years it was common for the leaders to lap at least half the field, so if that were to happen again the extra traffic could cause an issue.

There might also be a problem in Q1 with drivers unable to get a clear lap due to traffic

In all fairness, recently we haven't had brand new teams entering a total unknown quality of car. I very much suspect it will be a two formula race next year.

[Project 644]

hot metal said:

It was the Forti team that brought about the 107% rule I think ,awfull.

So-called because it seemed like there were forty of them in the race, you were lapping them so often.

[paulmurr]

TheArchitect said:

Should introduce success ballast to all cars imo.

Well, maybe just to the successful ones...

[Eric Mc]

In 1991 there were 34 cars trying to qualify (The 7UP Jordans numbered 33 and 34).

Prequalifying was how it was done. Read Perry McCarthy's book, "Flat Out - Flat Broke" to see how it worked. He turned up a for a whole bunch of GPs and never got to race.

[Evangelion]

Why not just draw all the numbers out of a hat to determine grid order, then they haven't got to plug around all afternoon using up petrol at 3mpg and wearing out the limited number of engines they all get now?

[sherman]

Evangelion said:

Why not just draw all the numbers out of a hat to determine grid order, then they haven't got to plug around all afternoon using up petrol at 3mpg and wearing out the limited number of engines they all get now?

But that would just be boring.

[anonymous-user]

hot metal said:

It was the Forti team that brought about the 107% rule I think ,awfull.

Not as bad as the Mastercard Lola's though, 15s a lap off the pace.

This is a fun website. http://www.f1rejects.com/