Due to Marussia and Caterham missing this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, responsibles met to discuss the case and change qualifying procedure for this weekend. Sebastian Vettel might not participate in the session and so making the problem even more serious.
After Marussia and Caterham announcements that they would not attend the race in America, the list of competitors published on Thursday by the FIA includes only eighteen cars. This would mean that, rules in hand, in Q1 only two drivers would be eliminated.
Given the situation, the curators responsible for the Grand Prix met last Thursday and decided to change the rules. Thus, this saturday there will be four eliminated in Q1 and four in Q2, keeping intact Q3, where the remaining ten drivers fight for pole position.
The decision has also been marked by a possible penalty for Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull Racing said that they surely would have to use a sixth power unit for the German driver after exhausting the statutory limit of five. The penalty for a change of power unit is ten grid positions, but the pilot has also exhausted the limit of the other five elements that compose it and an extra replacement of everything involves having to start from the pit-lane.
If this were the decision would be useless for Vettel to take part in qualifying and presumably would not do to save components. So, probably this weekend we will have a qualifying session on Saturday with only seventeen cars on the track of the Circuit of the Americas.