New Formula 1 Qualifying Rules!

Skeeter

Skeeter

Skeeter

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Formula 1 bosses have voted unanimously to deliver a dramatic overhaul of the qualifying format for the upcoming season.

Following a meeting of the Strategy Group and F1 Commission in Geneva, the format change has been voted through to spice up the show.

Qualifying will remain as a one-hour session, split into three segments, but drivers must be on track throughout each part until they get knocked out.

Details on how the new qualifying format will work exactly have yet to be decided, but the general outline has been agreed.

Q1 will now last 16 minutes and after seven minutes the slowest driver will take no further part in the session.

Every 90 seconds thereafter, the slowest will be knocked out until there are only 15 drivers remaining.

After a short break, Q2 will commence and last 15 minutes with the slowest driver eliminated after six minutes.

As was the case in Q1, the slowest driver at the time will be knocked out at 90-second intervals until eight remain.

Q3 will last 14 minutes and see the process repeated again with the slowest taking no further part after five minutes.

The next five drivers will drop out at 90-second intervals leaving the final two drivers to fight it out for pole in the final 90 seconds.

The change will require ratification by the World Motor Sport Council, which next meets on March 4.
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http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/122937

What the hell! Coupled with the ridiculous tyre rules, this just makes a massive complicated mess of stupidity!
 
I can't even get my head around how stupid this is.

Its clearly designed to force everyone to be on the track for the whole session, but it just sounds stupid.

Are they going to allocate more tyres? Its going to be ~45 minutes of flat out, so do they get more engine allocations per season? What if it rains? What about traffic and people blocking you? 17 minutes flat out on some tracks on soft tyres will mean a pit stop, in qualifying? You might decide that you don't want to use the softed tyre as your going to need to be fast at the end of a 14 minute session, but the rules force you? So many questions.

It just feels stupidly complicated for zero reason.
 
On the shorter tracks the pole sitter will have done 10 to 12 laps per session easy. Even the longer ones like Spa will see 6 to 8 laps a session. So the pole sitter will have been forced to do 30+ laps to qualify, while those behind may have done as little as 3. Are they done using the same tyre allocation?

And what the hell is this going to do to Monaco! Forcing all the cars onto the track at the same time to try and find space! There will be a pile up at Rascas before the 7 minute timer even hits!
 
Goksly said:
Surely every 90 seconds takes into account the whole session... So the front runners will do the same; set a safe lap and then wait until the next session. I think it will make Q3 more entertaining so there isn't just "two" runs.
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90 seconds is not enough time to react if your in the pits, so everyone who usually sits in the pits waiting until a few minutes are left before deciding weather to go out will instead have to be out on track, presumably trundling around saving their tyres getting in everyones way.

Edit: No, wait, this is in the details above:

but drivers must be on track throughout each part until they get knocked out.
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That reads like you must be on track to count, no sitting in the pits at all?
 
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The more I think about it the more I see potential for a track full of people trundling around slowly causing all sorts of carnage.

And then I realise what the FIA will do, they will just introduce even more rules stipulating a minimum lap time...
 
There's been no mention of a change to the tyre rules, and the description from Autosport suggests the drivers must remain on track to stay in Qualifying, which would mean doing each session on a single set.
 
Refueling isn't allowed on the pit lane, the cars have to go back into their garage and be filled using much slower pumps than back in the refueling days.
 
Fuel isn't the issue, its tyres. How is the last 90 seconds if qualifying meant to be exciting if its just going to be 2 guys struggling to get round on 10 lap old Ultra Softs?

The fastest times will be set in the first few minutes and then the rest will be people trundling around waiting to be eliminated as they don't have the tyres to allow them to improve.

Elimination/knock outs work in computer games where you have no degradation in the cars performance, but in real life I just can't see how it's going to work.
 
Why would you save your tyres? Just go out, flat out first lap when your tyres are at their best, and then cruse round in 8th listening to Radio 4 for the rest of the session.

There's no way a guy on 10 lap old Ultra Softs is going to go faster than someone on 1 lap old ones. Pole time will be set within the first 5 minutes of Q3, and the remaining 9 minutes will be pointless.
 
The tyre rules are 6 sets for qualifying and the race, plus an extra set just for Q3 if you get to it. However, that extra set is pointless if your not allowed to pit during the session and fit them.

These rules conflict with other rules and just make no sense.
 
muon said:
You will burn off fuel.

That is why lap times improve in a race even on the same set of ageing tyres.
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Managing your pace over a 20+ lap stint on harder tyres is very different to going flat out with 10 laps of fuel on the softest compound.

Quite often you will hear drivers saying the peak performance of the tyres in Qualifying is less than a lap. There's no way there then going to go faster 10 laps later.
 
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muon said:
Who says the tyre rules will remain the same?

Your own link says details are yet to be decided.

They might even allow racing pitstops with refuelling (as unlikely as it is). They were certainly thinking previously of bringing it in for races.
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How exactly would you retro fit race refueling setups to the cars and gear all the teams up in 3 weeks? Lol.

The link does say details are yet to be decided, but it also confirms that the cars must be on track until they are eliminated. That pretty much confirms a single set of tyres per session and no pit stops.
 
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I don't think there's any other way to read this, is there?

drivers must be on track throughout each part until they get knocked out.
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You must be on track and have set a time by the end of 7/6/5 minutes (depending on session) and then stay on track until your eliminated.
 
ESPN also interpreting it as needing to be on track for the whole session

Formula One is set for a revised qualifying format this year with live elimination during the session to spice up the show.

The new format was agreed at a meeting in Geneva of the F1 Strategy Group and F1 Commission to discuss ways to make the sport more exciting. The agreement to change the format is targeted at mixing up grids without using artificial measures such as reversing the order.

The new rules will still see qualifying divided into three segments, with drivers expected to be on track throughout and eliminated during each session. The first session will last 16 minutes and after the first seven minutes a driver will be knocked out every 90 seconds until 15 are left. The same will apply in Q2 with further seven set to be knocked out by the same method until eight remain.

The final eight will then shoot it out with the eliminations starting again after the first five minutes until two cars are left on track battling for pole.

The new rules are likely to cause a few upsets at certain races and will offer action throughout the sessions.

Further details of the decisions made by the Strategy Group and F1 Commission, including areo regulations for 2017, power unit supply and cockpit proctection, are expected to be communicated on Wednesday.
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http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/14831484/f1-agrees-shake-qualifying-format
 
muon said:
So that sounds like you don't actually have to be out on track. You just have a big incentive to be out on track as much as you can on fresh tyres.
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But look at the time you need to actually stop. At Spa a hot lap is 1:50, an out lap is 2+ minutes, plus a 25 second pit stop for tyres. That's 4 and a half minutes, not including any time you need to get back to the pits. That means that if your in 21st, 20th, or 19th place at the 7 minute mark of Q1 then you may as well give up, as you haven't got time to pit, change tyres get out and set a better lap time before you will be eliminated anyway.
 
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