F1 Qualifying – how does it work this year?
Discussion
Looking at the timetable for the Australian GP is seems there are two qualifying sessions, one on Saturday afternoon and one on Sunday morning. So it’s changed again? How does this version work?
I wish they’d stop f’ing around with qualifying. I haven’t really followed F1 too closely the past few years but AFAICT the format’s changed every bl**dy season. Can anybody give me a potted history of the changes made over the past few years?
As I remember it in the early 90’s there used to be an hour and a half practice on Friday followed by an hours qualifying in the afternoon and the same again on Saturday. The fastest time from either qualifying session being your qualifying time - simple. Then a half hour warm up Sunday morning, then the race.
I remember the 12 laps per session rule coming in (or was it four sets of tyre per session?) but after that I’ve lost track. We had one-shot qualifying laps for a while – is that still going? Then at one point it was reduced to a single qualifying session. Then wasn’t there some rule where you had a normal qualifying session on Friday which determined the order you had your one-shot qualifying on the Saturday? I really haven’t a clue TBH.
I can’t think of any other sport where the format of an event has changed so much over the past few years. Can you imagine FIFA saying; OK we’ll make the teams 8 men a side, games are one hour with no half time and any draws are decided by penalty shoot out. Next year; OK scrap that; this time we’ll have two 30 minute halves but a penalty shoot out at half time will decide what players each team can field in the second half. Next year… and so on. There’d be riots in the streets!
I wish they’d stop f’ing around with qualifying. I haven’t really followed F1 too closely the past few years but AFAICT the format’s changed every bl**dy season. Can anybody give me a potted history of the changes made over the past few years?
As I remember it in the early 90’s there used to be an hour and a half practice on Friday followed by an hours qualifying in the afternoon and the same again on Saturday. The fastest time from either qualifying session being your qualifying time - simple. Then a half hour warm up Sunday morning, then the race.
I remember the 12 laps per session rule coming in (or was it four sets of tyre per session?) but after that I’ve lost track. We had one-shot qualifying laps for a while – is that still going? Then at one point it was reduced to a single qualifying session. Then wasn’t there some rule where you had a normal qualifying session on Friday which determined the order you had your one-shot qualifying on the Saturday? I really haven’t a clue TBH.
I can’t think of any other sport where the format of an event has changed so much over the past few years. Can you imagine FIFA saying; OK we’ll make the teams 8 men a side, games are one hour with no half time and any draws are decided by penalty shoot out. Next year; OK scrap that; this time we’ll have two 30 minute halves but a penalty shoot out at half time will decide what players each team can field in the second half. Next year… and so on. There’d be riots in the streets!
In detail
Daft new rules said:
Qualifying
The 2005 race weekend will feature one qualifying session on Saturday afternoon and another on Sunday morning.
The first session will run from 1300 to 1400 on Saturday and will, as in 2004, be single lap qualifying, with the cars going out in the reverse order of their finishing positions at the previous race.
The second session, from 1000 to 1100 on Sunday, will also use the single lap format, with the cars going out in the reverse order of the qualifying on Saturday (i.e. the fastest car on Saturday runs last on Sunday).
The cars will run on Saturday with unrestricted fuel. They will then go into parc ferme after this qualifying session and for the Sunday qualifying session they will run with race fuel, having been allowed to refuel before the second qualifying session. They will not be allowed to refuel again before the race starts.
The times of the two sessions will be aggregated to determine the grid, with the shortest aggregate time in pole position.
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