Change qualifying

[oyster]

The team leading at half time in football is most likely to win.
The golfer leading with a round to play is most likely to win.
The skier fastest from the 1st run is most likely to win.
The team with the highest first innings score in cricket is more likely to win.
The tennis player who wins the 1st set is more likely to win.
and so on and so on

F1 is just the same.

[Kenny Powers]

Leave it alone. The fastest car and driver is supposed to win the race, not be penalised and put to the back of the grid (or something) in a misguided attempt at politically entertaining the easily bored. Take the advice of Why Don’t You? if you don’t appreciate F1 - other motorsports are available.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, of course, but I’m actually quite surprised by the continued calls for extra excitement this season. Makes me wonder how many people are even watching the races they’re complaining about

[Kraken]

oyster said:

The team leading at half time in football is most likely to win.
The golfer leading with a round to play is most likely to win.
The skier fastest from the 1st run is most likely to win.
The team with the highest first innings score in cricket is more likely to win.
The tennis player who wins the 1st set is more likely to win.
and so on and so on

F1 is just the same.

Not really the same as none of those things are giving the best funded or most skilful player/team a bigger advantage before the main event. Everything you quote is a consequence of something happening in the main event not a separate thing leading up to it.

You could say the F1 car leading the first lap is most likely to win the race but it's how they got there that is the difference.

It will take decades to correct what is wrong with F1 and a lot of other motorsport. Playing around with quali would just be lipstick on a pig.

[HarryFlatters]

jpf said:

As things stand now, the results of a F1 race are largely determined by qualifying.

Qualifying is fine. The issue is more fundamental; the cars are, and have been for the last 30 years, too dependant on surface aero.

That's why qualifying is so important.

Take away surface aero, give them back some ground effect and watch the racing improve.

[oyster]

Kraken said:

oyster said:

The team leading at half time in football is most likely to win.
The golfer leading with a round to play is most likely to win.
The skier fastest from the 1st run is most likely to win.
The team with the highest first innings score in cricket is more likely to win.
The tennis player who wins the 1st set is more likely to win.
and so on and so on

F1 is just the same.

Not really the same as none of those things are giving the best funded or most skilful player/team a bigger advantage before the main event. Everything you quote is a consequence of something happening in the main event not a separate thing leading up to it.

You could say the F1 car leading the first lap is most likely to win the race but it's how they got there that is the difference.

It will take decades to correct what is wrong with F1 and a lot of other motorsport. Playing around with quali would just be lipstick on a pig.

Practice 1, Practice 2, Practice 3, Qualifying and Race are all part of the F1 event.

You're making this odd assumption that only the race is important.

[SpudLink]

oyster said:

The team leading at half time in football is most likely to win.
The golfer leading with a round to play is most likely to win.
The skier fastest from the 1st run is most likely to win.
The team with the highest first innings score in cricket is more likely to win.
The tennis player who wins the 1st set is more likely to win.
and so on and so on

F1 is just the same.

Agreed.
F1 is the elite tip of the motorsport iceberg. The best car/driver/team combination is supposed to win the race, and the championship. It’s not about giving everyone an equal chance.
There are many other (lower) forms of motorsport available, many with gimmicks to raise the entertainment value. That’s good fun for drivers at club level, and to entertain the masses in national championships.

[andburg]

I like the current format and dont see any reason to change it but I would debate 1 change

tweak the Q2 carry over

eliminated in Q1 - free choice
eliminated in Q2 - start on tyres from fastest lap from Q1/Q2 to stop people doing slow lap.
Q3 - everyone gets a set of the fastest tyres and has to start on the tyre they set their fastest lap on across all 3 sessions to stop people doing slow lap and starting on fresh sticky tyres

[Nampahc Niloc]

I don’t really understand the reasons for having to qualify on your race tyres. Can anyone explain the benefit of this?

[Sam993]

Nampahc Niloc said:

I don’t really understand the reasons for having to qualify on your race tyres. Can anyone explain the benefit of this?

It gives those who didn't go through to Q3 an advantage (not on all tracks) where they can freely start a race on a tyre that might last longer but you wouldn't want to qualify on it.

[andburg]

if everyone could they'd run the fastest strategy which invariably wont be to start on the fastest tyres for a short period and then swap to slower rubber.

Merc/Ferrari have enough advantage to usually get through Q2 on more durable tyres meaning they can run faster and longer to comfortably build a pitstop on their first stint. Singapore was actually good because they couldn't do that, they had to nurse the tyres but they also had to pit back into the pack.

Forcing the fastest cars to start on the fastest tyres doesnt always mean they'll run away if the tyres degrade fast enough

[davepen]

Nampahc Niloc said:

I don’t really understand the reasons for having to qualify on your race tyres. Can anyone explain the benefit of this?

It goes back to the N.Piquet (Senior) era when they had qualifying cars, engines, tyres, designed to only last say 3 laps. They then jumped into their spare car for the race. So you had two different spec cars, one for Saturday one for Sunday. It was felt that the car that qualified on Saturday should be the one that started the race, hence the parc-ferme rules. At one point even re-fueling wasn't allowed on a Saturday night.

[ChrisMCoupe]

Bring back re-fuelling if you ask me, then make each driver start the race with the fuel they qualified on. Should spice things up a bit from the point of view of strategy. Oh and scrap the two tyre rule also.

[rdjohn]

There are several problems to be solved, but I still think that the Pirelli’s are half the problem. Trying to make tyres “designed to fail” was a concept worth trying, but it only makes a bigger step between the haves and the have-nots.

https://www.jamesallenonf1.com/wp-content/uploads/...

Despite driving pitifully slow lap times, only the top 3-teams can get the car to go faster as fuel burns off - rising slope to the curve. Everyone else fails except Alonso P11 manages to match degradation against fuel burn, level curve.

There are only 10-teams so suggesting that the ones who don’t have the cash should move down to F2, or F3, is something of an insult. Decent durable Prime and Option tyres are all that is required. A mandatory 2-stop strategy would guarantee a much more exciting and challenging race than we had on Sunday.

I am sure that if Scuffers were still around here he would explain this more forcibly.

[andburg]

rdjohn said:

There are several problems to be solved, but I still think that the Pirelli’s are half the problem. Trying to make tyres “designed to fail” was a concept worth trying, but it only makes a bigger step between the haves and the have-nots.

https://www.jamesallenonf1.com/wp-content/uploads/...

Despite driving pitifully slow lap times, only the top 3-teams can get the car to go faster as fuel burns off - rising slope to the curve. Everyone else fails except Alonso P11 manages to match degradation against fuel burn, level curve.

There are only 10-teams so suggesting that the ones who don’t have the cash should move down to F2, or F3, is something of an insult. Decent durable Prime and Option tyres are all that is required. A mandatory 2-stop strategy would guarantee a much more exciting and challenging race than we had on Sunday.

I am sure that if Scuffers were still around here he would explain this more forcibly.

interesting but its not comparing them to a base laptime, its showing field spread, what it shows is that the top few cars were going much slower than their potential until the pit stops.As they stopped and moved to a more durable tyre they could use more of the potential which spread the field, the rear cars may actually have been running faster then they were lap1-12 but were slower in relation to the tops cars.

Would be interesting to see a proper laptime plot for some of the cars. Magnussen we know set the fastest lap late on but that barely registers on the chart's he turned everything down afterwards

[Vaud]

Of all the aspects of F1 that could be reformed, quali is not on my list.

We get the odd surprise. We get three peaks of interest in the hour.

[Some Gump]

Quali is the best bit of the weekend. It doesn't need changing at all.

If anything qauli based would make it more interesting, it'd be lose quali altogether and have 3 heats on sat (20 mins long). Random grids a la karting (where total of all start positions is equal for every driver). Feature race grid would then be set by average heat position.

Thing is, this is the pinnacle of motorsport. To do the above would cheapen it. They don't need that at all, in reality they need to change something far more fundamental to make the teams more equally financed from TV money, and reduce the "dirty air" problem. With good racing, "out of sequence" quali is less of a critical factor for entertainment.

[E34-3.2]

qualifying is one of the best thing of F1. No change needed.

[HealeyV8]

Always have qualifying with a wet track. Fit watering devices. That should spice things up!

[thegreenhell]

Start the race with an old style Le Mans start where they have to run across the track to the cars, but let them pick which car to run for. First one to the Mercedes gets it.

[Vaud]

ash73 said:

Rebrand quali as a time trial with points awarded, ditch parc ferme and start the race on Sunday in reverse championship order.

Which would lead to rubbish races.