Qualifying minima

[Roger the knife]

Although there appears to be no mention in the Sporting Regs, I was wondering if the FIA will bring ib=n a qualifying minina, something like 115% of pole postion time. I know there used to be in the old days, I just can't remember how tight the limit was. Will the FIA introduce this to make the new teams comply with a definitive performance level, or will they be OK with the possibility of new cars running round 6~7 seconds off the pace of the front runners.

[ackzsel]

Although there appears to be no mention in the Sporting Regs, I was wondering if the FIA will bring ib=n a qualifying minina, something like 115% of pole postion time. I know there used to be in the old days, I just can't remember how tight the limit was. Will the FIA introduce this to make the new teams comply with a definitive performance level, or will they be OK with the possibility of new cars running round 6~7 seconds off the pace of the front runners.

IIRC there was a 107% rule. I guess it didn't survive the quali reformatting. It's also not necessary since it looks like the FIA lets no more cars enter the championship than the number of starting positions a Grand Prix facilitates.

[Ciro Pabón]

If it's because there are more cars than positions, there is no need of minimum times: it's enough to qualify only the fastest cars.

Expelling "out of pace" cars are a thing of the past: to have less cars than what's possible seems a little absurd these days. The only constraint I see is the size of the physical grid and then only at a few tracks, like Barcelona or Oz.

[Dukeage]

If there is a real safety concern, I'd imagine we'll see a 107% rule for 2011. How it would work with the Q1/Q2 system is beyond me though.