Qualifying format idea

[CriXus]

Why not change to Indycar qualifying format for road courses.

Road/Street Course Qualifying

Qualifying is broken into three segments, progressively narrowing the field to determine the pole winner. Segment 1 is broken into two groups determined by the top time posted by each car in the final practice session before qualifying.

Segment 1 – Each of the two groups receives 15 minutes of track time, inclusive of full-course caution conditions, with the fastest lap by each car determining its qualifying position. The fastest six cars from each group advance to Segment 2, while the remaining cars are assigned positions 13 and back to the rear of the grid. Group 1 drivers occupy the odd-numbered positions (13, 15, 17, etc.), while Group 2 drivers occupy the even-numbered positions (14, 16, 18, etc.) based on their fastest lap times during the segment.

Segment 2 – The 12 advancing cars receive 15 minutes of track time, inclusive of full-course caution conditions, with the fastest lap by each entry determining its qualifying position. The fastest six advance to the Firestone Fast Six shootout, while the remaining six cars are ranked in positions 7-12 based on their fastest laps during the segment.

Firestone Fast Six – The six advancing cars receive 15 minutes of guaranteed green-flag track time. At the end of the session, the cars are ranked 1-6 based on their fastest laps during the segment.

[Just_a_fan]

Why not change to Indycar qualifying format for road courses.

Because there is nothing wrong with F1 qualifying as it is. It doesn't need changing.

[CriXus]

Why not change to Indycar qualifying format for road courses.

Because there is nothing wrong with F1 qualifying as it is. It doesn't need changing.

Yes, it's quite god, but the only con of the current format is that there are too much cars on track. IN Q1 are 22, in Q2 are 15 and in Q3 are 10. Think what happened between Vettel and Sainz.

[marvin78]

Quali is the only thing that is not broken. And many cars on track is just normal, incidences like Vettel and Sainz are also normal (except for the outcome).

[ecapox]

The top 10 in qualifying should start the race in reverse order. Fastest in qualifying gets 10 points and starts 10th place in the race. 1st place in the race gets 15 points.

[ESPImperium]

Leave it alone, it doesn't need changing. If anything, id make it that each driver must do at least 2 runs in every session, forcing the top guys to run more in Q1 and sometimes in Q2. Yes it creates traffic, but it will give the drivers more jeopardy and the fans more excitement and track action.

Only thing i would do is limit the drivers more on tyres to 3 sets of qualifying and 2 sets of prime and option tyres, or if you are McLaren, 3 sets of option and two sets of prime and backup tyres for quality and the race. Meaning the top guys would have to try and get through Q1 and the first half of Q2 on a slower set of Option (Prime, McLaren) tyres. However, Pirelli need to make their tyres two stages softer for this to work, also forcing the teams into a two or three stop race as well. Ans ditching the two compound rule for the guys who qualified outside the top 10. Or if you were to force me to make a change to Quali, id eliminate 6 in Q1, 6 again in Q2 and have only the top 8 drivers in Q3, with it going to 8/8/8 if there was two more teams found to come into the sport like Porsche and Toyota.

[Ted68]

ESPImperium is right. Saturday works fine, leave it alone. The only change I see needed is specific qualifying tyres. Leave the race tyres for the race.

If Liberty wants to fix the show on Sunday, free up testing. Let the teams put better cars on the track from the first race on.

[Zynerji]

Qualifying is perfect as it is. Most issues like Vet/Sai are track design.

[Big Tea]

Leave it alone, it doesn't need changing. If anything, id make it that each driver must do at least 2 runs in every session, forcing the top guys to run more in Q1 and sometimes in Q2. Yes it creates traffic, but it will give the drivers more jeopardy and the fans more excitement and track action.

Only thing i would do is limit the drivers more on tyres to 3 sets of qualifying and 2 sets of prime and option tyres, or if you are McLaren, 3 sets of option and two sets of prime and backup tyres for quality and the race. Meaning the top guys would have to try and get through Q1 and the first half of Q2 on a slower set of Option (Prime, McLaren) tyres. However, Pirelli need to make their tyres two stages softer for this to work, also forcing the teams into a two or three stop race as well. Ans ditching the two compound rule for the guys who qualified outside the top 10. Or if you were to force me to make a change to Quali, id eliminate 6 in Q1, 6 again in Q2 and have only the top 8 drivers in Q3, with it going to 8/8/8 if there was two more teams found to come into the sport like Porsche and Toyota.

The down side of the top teams running more in Q1 is more cars on track for the little guys runs.
They may need the extra space to get the clear runs to progress.

[Monster Hesh]

Agree qualifying is fine as it. It's interesting, suspense builds to a great climax. It would be even better if it had MotoGP pace proximity. MotoGP Assen's 2018 qualifying was the best qualifying session I have ever seen. Top 4 within 0.1s top 11 within 0.5s.

[CriXus]

I know the qualy is fine, but what i proposed is not something bold. It works in Indycar and i think is a little bit better than the current F1 qualy.

Q1
----
- two 15 min sessions of groups of 11 cars
- first 5 of each go to Q2
- last 6 of each group are going to occupy the places from 11 to 22. Odd numbers (11, 13, 15...) are the one from the faster group from Q1 and even numbers (12, 14, 16...) are the one from the slower group from Q1

Q2
----
- one 15 min session
- first 5 advance to Q3
- last 5 occupy the places from 6 to 10

Q3 (The Fast Five)
----
- one 15 min session
- decides pole and places from 2 to 5

This is nothing like the joke of 2016.

[Ringleheim]

Qualifying is the ONE THING in F1 that is perfect. Please don't break it!

I think your opinion of current qualifying is widely shared, but I wonder why.

Q1 is a waste of everyone's time. I have no interest in the running order of the slowest cars in the field. Q2 is a bit better, but still mostly a waste of time.

Q3 is what we all want to see---the real battle among the fastest cars/drivers to see the starting order at the top of the field---but Q3 is the shortest of them all (!) and we usually only get 2 fast laps from all the top drivers. Of those laps, we will see a small amount of any one driver usually.

I rather dislike the current set up. I much prefer the days where every driver got 1 lap and we got to see every second of every lap of every car.

As it stands now, all you need to see is the last 3 or 4 minutes of Q3, and even then, you will miss MUCH of what you want to see, with us being left to wonder why Vettel was suddenly .2 slower or .3 seconds faster, while we were watching Hamilton.

[Zynerji]

Qualifying is the ONE THING in F1 that is perfect. Please don't break it!

I think your opinion of current qualifying is widely shared, but I wonder why.

Q1 is a waste of everyone's time. I have no interest in the running order of the slowest cars in the field. Q2 is a bit better, but still mostly a waste of time.

Q3 is what we all want to see---the real battle among the fastest cars/drivers to see the starting order at the top of the field---but Q3 is the shortest of them all (!) and we usually only get 2 fast laps from all the top drivers. Of those laps, we will see a small amount of any one driver usually.

I rather dislike the current set up. I much prefer the days where every driver got 1 lap and we got to see every second of every lap of every car.

As it stands now, all you need to see is the last 3 or 4 minutes of Q3, and even then, you will miss MUCH of what you want to see, with us being left to wonder why Vettel was suddenly .2 slower or .3 seconds faster, while we were watching Hamilton.

Q1 is the suspense of who in the midfield has their sh!t together this week, and who is the heartbreak.

Q2 is all about revealing race tyre strategy, with feints and the pressure that comes with sometimes risking a slower tyre.

Q3 is the shoot out for pole.

Knockout qualifying is, by far, more on track action, drama, and exciting. In the old format, you knew by the sector 2 times if a driver was going to get on pole. Now we have the last gasp attempts, after the checkered flag, and that has shown some absolutely heart stopping action.

I'm sorry, but "everyone gets a lap" always favored the last driver on track due to rubbering in. With the first 2 rounds of qualifying, it prepares the track for Q3, and everyone benefits.

[Beru]

Here is how I see things.
I would see the qualifying sessions like they are actually, but I would add something different for increase the interest and the challenge.
After the Q3, the first pilot qualified would receive 10 capsules in a bucket, the second 9 capsules and so on up to the 10th pilot which receive only 1 capsule.
A draw will determine the first 10 positions for the race. It can be done in a way that the first capsule drawn indicate the first position, the second one the second position and so on.. OR the first capsule drawn indicate the 10th position, the second one indicate the 9th position and so on...
Personnaly, I would prefer that the first capsule drawn gives the first position, after all, it is the fastest driver qualified that deserve the highest numbers of capsule.
But it is not acquired that this driver will start first. Here is all the suspense and the fight at the beginning of the race… This will makes the races more unpredictable and the entire season more unpredictable...

[WaikeCU]

Here’s a thought. Testing is prohibited during the season and test sessions are getting more limited season after season. Cars used to develop during the season in the past. So here’s a thought:

- No qualifying any longer
- Grid order for each race is reverse championship standing order.
- Penalty for changing PU’s and gearboxes = start out of the pitbox for the race.
- Sessions during Friday and Saturday are FP1 and FP2. Each session starts from 10am till 16pm local time non-stop.
- Teams are free to assign up to 3 drivers during each day.
- FP1 and FP2 can be seen as free moments for teams to do testing and prepare for the race on Sunday.
- Fastest time at the end of Friday and Saturday each earn 1 extra point.