F1 drivers weigh in on qualifying format changes in the light of increasing impeding cases seen this year.
Amid the recent increase in impeding cases especially in qualifying, has forced discussions around the format if it needs changes or not. Coming into Red Bull Ring which is a short circuit, there is a big chance of drivers getting impeded.
One of the options that the F1 drivers discussed was a single lap qualifying format which was done so in the past. Another was dividing Q1 into two halves with 10 cars in one group – only done so at shorter circuits and not in general.
While such suggestions were handed out, some of the F1 drivers were fine with qualifying as it is. They reckon onus is on the drivers to manage traffic and sometimes things just so happen, but it doesn’t need any dramatic changes.
Here’s what the F1 drivers said –
Fernando Alonso: “Yeah, it is a topic every weekend and especially in short circuits. I don’t know. There are a few options to improve this: one is single lap qualifying, like in the past. That would be ideal, in my opinion, because only one car on track and full TV coverage for that lap, for everyone’s sponsors and things like that. And that created a little bit of drama in case of weather changes in between qualifiers, you could see in pole position different cars, different names. So that was, I think, my preferred option. You can split the grid like junior formulas, they do in Monaco, and things like that. But it is a topic now.”
Carlos Sainz: “Yeah, I think the shorter-term solution would be to at least do Q1 on a split: 10 cars, one from each team in a qualifying group. Then, I think by Q2, the traffic already improves quite a bit. Q3 is not a problem. So, it would be only short tracks, Q1s maybe. Divide the session by half and do eight minutes with one group, eight minutes with another group. Anyway, it shouldn’t affect, because the performance of the cars are split. And yeah, that’s the shorter-term solution. The single lap qualifying is maybe something to experiment with, as Fernando said.
“Also, maybe in Sprint weekends, to try, if it would work. I personally, was a big fan of it. Because I do like that feeling of suddenly having the whole track for you and having the pressure to perform only in one lap. I think that would be really good fun for us, I think for our sponsors, and for everyone. But maybe for the TV would be a bit boring for you. But I don’t know, depends on the technology. You also have to animate that single lap. If you could put a ghost car of the fastest lap, I think with the technology that we have, nowadays, something like that could be achievable, with the mini-sectors, with a ghost car, with that kind of stuff that I think we should look into.”
Zhou Guanyu: “Yeah, I mean, they pretty much had everything with the ideas. But these days, I think the drivers rely a lot on mirrors and engineers. Obviously with the speed travelling around the Red Bull Ring, it’s going to be very difficult for us, especially when there’s a massive train coming into the second-last corner. But coming into the future, I think these ideas could be a way forward. Also, there could be idea on the dash, maybe you get to see when is the next car, how many seconds close by you, in the future development on the dash, system-wise but that’s pretty much everything I can think of.”
Max Verstappen: “It’s quite cool but again there’s also track evolution, so not sure it’s the best idea. But again, yeah, there is always traffic, but this has been for Monza… You just have to try and manage it. I know some tracks, of course, are a bit better than others but yeah, it’s a tricky one.”
Nico Hulkenberg: “I feel like, as Max said, some tracks are more difficult than others but I also feel that some teams and drivers are better than others, and pay more attention and some less. And some create situations more than others and I personally like how our Qualifying is. I think it’s quite good to watch, it’s quite good fun from inside the car so I’m pretty happy.”
George Russell: “Yeah, same as Nico, I think Qualifying’s pretty good as it is. Traffic is sometimes bad at certain tracks. I think the only suggestion we had in the past was to have like your GPS delta on the dash, so you’re not relying on your engineers because when you’re going slow the cars come at you so quick and we’re always relying on our engineers to tell us, so put it in our hands to manage and not somebody else’s.”
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