There have been several occasions this year where a car has opted not to run in Q3 because the team / driver feels that he has peeked in performance and dosn't want to risk the car on a needless couple of laps when 10th was the best that could be hoped for anyway. This culminated recently in 3 cars sitting the session out for the same reason. At the time there were suggestions that the FIA should make it mandatory for cars to run at least one flying lap in the session. Should this be the case or do you feel that cars should be allowed to opt out of the final session if they wish?
Widening the topic further, in the last 10 years we've seen several changes made to the rules regarding qualification from the standard all go for it at once regs of old, through the single lap in championship order to the current it's a knockout style. Which do you prefer and is there any need for change?
In my opinion, I really like the it's a knockout style of three periods of qually. It has succeeded in throwing up some unsual results around the bottom end of each run and it works as a full hour of entertainment which is the very reason why Bernie demanded changes in the first place because sponsors and viewers were being treated to 55 minutes of Minardi followed by 5 minutes of madness. The only thing I personally think is wrong with the system is that there seems to be very little need for the top 6 or so cars to go out at all in Q1 because unless of some major weather change or car issue they nearly always get through and on the prime tyre as well, while the smaller teams almost always have to guarentee their safety by using up a set of options.
So what I would do is run every car on the same tyre type in Q1 to sort out 1 to 24. Then cars 12 to 24 would go out in Q2 to sort out their running order and then the cars in 1 to 12 would go out in Q3 to sort out their running order. In Q2 and Q3, either of the two tyre types would be allowed. I would drop the rule that cars in Q3 must start on their qually tyres as this has been made totally pointless by the new tyre regulations. What this would mean is that each team has used up more or less the same sets of tyres and there would be no reason to sit your car out of a qualification session because the battle for higher grids spots between say 12 and 6 is a lot more open than between 10 and 6.
What's everyone else think?
Widening the topic further, in the last 10 years we've seen several changes made to the rules regarding qualification from the standard all go for it at once regs of old, through the single lap in championship order to the current it's a knockout style. Which do you prefer and is there any need for change?
In my opinion, I really like the it's a knockout style of three periods of qually. It has succeeded in throwing up some unsual results around the bottom end of each run and it works as a full hour of entertainment which is the very reason why Bernie demanded changes in the first place because sponsors and viewers were being treated to 55 minutes of Minardi followed by 5 minutes of madness. The only thing I personally think is wrong with the system is that there seems to be very little need for the top 6 or so cars to go out at all in Q1 because unless of some major weather change or car issue they nearly always get through and on the prime tyre as well, while the smaller teams almost always have to guarentee their safety by using up a set of options.
So what I would do is run every car on the same tyre type in Q1 to sort out 1 to 24. Then cars 12 to 24 would go out in Q2 to sort out their running order and then the cars in 1 to 12 would go out in Q3 to sort out their running order. In Q2 and Q3, either of the two tyre types would be allowed. I would drop the rule that cars in Q3 must start on their qually tyres as this has been made totally pointless by the new tyre regulations. What this would mean is that each team has used up more or less the same sets of tyres and there would be no reason to sit your car out of a qualification session because the battle for higher grids spots between say 12 and 6 is a lot more open than between 10 and 6.
What's everyone else think?
The current one could do with tweaks, the Q3 is the best session, reminds me of the 12 lap max format but the 10 minutes is just not long enough. 20 would be much better, even an hour!! Then were back to the format I like haha.
