Home F1 F1 drivers don’t see the benefit of new qualifying trial

F1, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc, F1 — BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - MARCH 04: Pole position qualifier Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing (C), Second placed qualifier Sergio Perez of Mexico and Oracle Red Bull Racing (L) and Third placed qualifier Charles Leclerc of Monaco and Ferrari (R) attend the press conference after qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit on March 04, 2023 in Bahrain, Bahrain. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202303040360 // Usage for editorial use only //

F1 drivers don’t see the benefit of new qualifying trial

15/03/2023

F1 drivers don’t see any benefit of the new qualifying trial which is slated to happen in Imola, where tyres will be fixed.

Multiple different methods of F1 qualifying have been tried over the years. The current “knockout” method has been tried and tested for the last number of seasons and one which has been loved by the fans and even the drivers. But the 2023 season will see a new qualifying format at two Grand’s Prix.

First of the two will be at the F1 Emilia Romagna GP. The new rule will see hard tyres to be used in Q1, medium in Q2 and the soft compound in Q3. It will be interesting to see how these sessions will be approached by teams and drivers but some drivers reckon it is perhaps not a good idea to make any changes as the current format is fine.

“I hope it’s not going to be cold in Imola, otherwise it’s going to be quite tricky but yeah, it’s the same for everyone but I don’t think we need to actually do these kinds of things in qualifying,” said Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. “I don’t really see the benefit of it”.

“It’s better if we make sure that all the cars are close to each other and more competitive instead of spicing things up in that way, which I think is probably for the show.” His teammate Sergio Perez concurred: “Yeah, just think it’s for the show. I think we don’t need that when you see the qualifying we had in Bahrain, how close everything was”.

“We do not really need to change anything. But we’ll see, we’ll see once we try it but I don’t think there’s a need to change something that is working well.” Their chief F1 rival Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had similar notion about it.

“Yeah, I don’t feel there was a need for change for that but let’s try and see,” he said. The currently F1 qualifying scenario does throw up surprises in it’s own right and as per the drivers themselves, it is really perhaps just for show that they are trying the new one”.

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