New qualifying format...

[Manoah2u]

next year:

arificial rain sprays on the track to bring more excitement during qually!

[ChrisDanger]

From the article quoted by the OP:

...drivers must be on track throughout each part until they get knocked out.

Some people, including Kravitz, seemed to have missed that.

They’ll go out, set what they hope is the quickest time on a fresh tyre, come back in...

[void]

Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren (I hope so), Williams and RBR will do a flying lap on the beginning, and the other teams will fight until the end. There won't be any tittle contender running all the Qualify Session.

[FrukostScones]

From the article quoted by the OP:

...drivers must be on track throughout each part until they get knocked out.

Some people, including Kravitz, seemed to have missed that.

They’ll go out, set what they hope is the quickest time on a fresh tyre, come back in...

so no tyre change?

fueled up for the session and one set of tyres?

how shall that work?

[bonjon1979]

If it gives us more of a mixed up grid. Then it theory it should make for more exciting races and force teams like Mercedes not to just pace/control their drivers. Secondly, I think you will have some exciting times as frontrunners find themselves in difficulty and have to race to get to the cut off time. I really don't think we're going to see people running through all over qualy as some are suggesting. Teams will go out and set fast times and only those on the edge of elimination will be going again and again to try to make sure they're not the ones knocked out. In q1 you will still have 10 cars who set times that are safe before the knock out section starts. In q2 there will still be top teams doing just one lap which will be enough to put them safely in Q3. I suppose where it gets interesting is when someone decides to gamble on a set of soft tyres for example when the best race tyres are medium and hard. Front runners may be forced to compromise their race by taking on the softer tyres too or they may have to set another banzai lap on the mediums. I fear that in some ways this is going to help mercedes dominance though. They are so far ahead, I don't think they're going to get caught up in these squabbles as in Q1 and Q2 they will come out and nail laps that are clearly fast enough for them not to worry. HOwever, their competitors may well be closer to the cut off point and so run the risk of being compromised.

[Manoah2u]

so what happens when there is an accident on-track? yellow flags? redflags?

will the 'elimination point' be postponed another lap?

[Phil]

.....i'm willing to bet, they havent thought that far yet.......

[turbof1]

Stickied

[ChrisDanger]

... I really don't think we're going to see people running through all over qualy as some are suggesting. Teams will go out and set fast times and only those on the edge of elimination will be going again and again to try to make sure they're not the ones knocked out...

I'll say it one last time: The rules will enforce this.

...drivers must be on track throughout each part* until they get knocked out.

* - By "each part" they mean each session: Q1, Q2, or Q3.d the above quote... )

EDIT: Sorry, I think I misinterpreted the top quoted text but I see some people are still missing it.

[i70q7m7ghw]

How is that going to work, will drivers be allowed to complete the lap they are on? 90 seconds is a lap at some tracks...

[ARF1]

... I really don't think we're going to see people running through all over qualy as some are suggesting. Teams will go out and set fast times and only those on the edge of elimination will be going again and again to try to make sure they're not the ones knocked out...

I'll say it one last time: The rules will enforce this.

...drivers must be on track throughout each part* until they get knocked out.

* - By "each part" they mean each session: Q1, Q2, or Q3.

I'm not sure how this is going to work in reality. Q1 is 16 minutes, and so now you have to be on track for the whole 16 minutes? What does "on track" mean? Can you pit for tyres, or pull into the garage for refuelling? Is that "on track"?

If not, then you have to go out a the start of Q1 with at least say 12 laps of fuel (in Melbourne Pole is around 1:26) and only one set of tyres to last the 16 minutes. So what do you do? You lap as slow as possible until the 7 minute mark to preserve the tyres and burn off fuel (weight). Cut a fast lap before the first drop out at 7 minutes. Then your tyres are shot (as qualy is done on the softer compound with a shorter life), so you return to lapping at a slow pace until the time is up and you're either into Q2 or not.

Seems like the old "qualify on your race fuel" format where we had a horribly boring fuel-burn phase in Q1. This format could work if the tyres could do more than 1 flying lap, and you could lap faster and faster as the fuel burnt off. But with these Pirelli's, that's not going to happen. Your first flying lap is your fastest.

[Gridlock]

Without seeing it in action, my first thought would be that qualifying has now become as much about keeping track of the Manors and Saubers as doing a fast lap?

You can't block cars behind if you're not on a flying lap, but this makes all laps flying laps?

[Phil]

I'm trying to be positive in regards to the new qualifying format. One of the positive aspects of it, I see, is the unpredictability it can (and most likely will cause). It will lead to cars qualifying on pole that aren't necessarily the quickest and this will lead to a slightly more exciting race, because those cars will no longer be driving off into the distance when the lights go off. To then watch those quicker cars come through traffic will be just as exciting, as some of the 'best races' of the last few years where some error or mistake, a disqualification lead to that car battling through the traffic, often with spectacular overtakes.

Some of these races that come to mind:

- Vettel on his way to his 3rd WDC after his car was facing the wrong way of the track and damaged on the first lap
- Schumacher on his last race before his retirement with Ferrari
- Hamilton at various stages in 2014 when he battled qualifying issues and had to come through the field
- Vettel - again - when he was disqualified (I think 2012?) and the team opted to start from the pit lane after braking Park Ferme to alter the set up of the car (forget which race that was)

There are a lot of races where this has happened and this has usually led to an exciting race. At the ver least much better than more progressive races that have seen little to no overtaking due to cars already starting in the 'performance order' and finishing in that same order too.

So this qualifying format will most likely create havoc, create chaos and that will influence the starting order to create more exciting races where the stakes will simply be higher.

But will it be as satisfying? The worst as a fan I fear, is that races will become more like a lottery gamble. I don't want unpredictable wins. On some level, I want the best car and the best driver to win because as a team, they deserved it. If Hamilton was disqualified due to too little fuel, Vettel/Redbull made a mistake that caused them to be knocked out in Q3, Hamilton's car caught fire in qualifying and as a result started at the end of the grid - yes, it's unpredictable, but only to a certain degree. The team underdelivered and as a result, they qualified where they belong. So not quite the result of a lottery.

And this is where I see a problem with this new format. What happens if you have a yellow flag? Or a quick lap is ruined by traffic (which happens more often than not and is an easy consequence of a grid of 20 cars on the track all trying to deliver the best time possible)? And all that happens in the right moment to see that car then eliminated? Even if we assume this is all part of murphy's law - I do wonder what kind of effect this will have on the race. What about team orders?

What if, two drivers of the same team qualify in such an unpredictable manner that one of them starts on P2, the other on P9. Will we even get to see them race under the identical circumstances, battle them out? Or will one of them be so severely compromised that we as fans will be robbed of that? Imagine this: instead of more races like Bahrain 2014 when both Hamilton and Rosberg delivered perhaps one of the most exhilarating battles in modern F1, we might see Hungary 2014 instead, where both started with a huge gap and then as they got closer, we saw team orders come into play as the team wanted Hamilton to let Rosberg past, even though they were actually battling for the same position. This could very well happen.

If this year turns out to be similar to 2015 and 2014 in that Mercedes will still be the dominant team, thanks to this new qualifying format, we will have robbed perhaps one of the only exciting aspects of it - to see both team mates (of any team) battle each other in equal machinery most likely in equal cars because the chance that they will actually qualify next to each other will be greatly reduced.

Will the gain be worth it? Especially if the effect this might cause is a very unpredictable world championship race?

Maybe this is painting an overall grim picture of a new format that could work fantastically, but I'm really doubtful at the moment. And as is often the case in F1, I do sometimes wonder how much and how far some of these people that dream up such ideas actually think them through. Yes, we want more exciting races, but we don't want a lottery race either. I would much rather prefer a handicap system that is 'predictable' in a sense, but leads to more exciting aspects of motor racing like overtaking to be more heavily emphasised without it becoming a farce...

[adrianjordan]

This idea seems absurd to me, also i find the final part of qualy even more annoying;

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

I know im dreaming here but i would like to see a 3-4 car shoot-out for pole, not just a Mercedes show (and that's coming from a Merc fan)

Totally agree with you.

[Shrieker]

But this is not qualifying... It's a time trial... A time trial is where you try to not make any mistakes, but drive neither too fast nor too slow. The proposal is exactly that.

Might as well call it a time trial session...