All who get through to Q3 should be made to go out on track

[Max Speed]

For example, I've been very impressed with Paul Di Resta's debut year in F1, but his attitude as to whether all who get through to Q3 should be made to go out on track in the final session is typical of a generation who would not have witnessed an era when the spectators who pay good money to travel to the races would actually be considered. "It's best for the team, will give us a better chance in the race, good strategy," ect ect

[hollus]

That is not the driver's call. The team make those calls for the drivers, as they have all the numbers on what everyone else is doing, and the drivers are busy enough driving and simply lack the data to make such decisions.

In general, pit-strategies are not the driver's call.

[QLDriver]

To me, for all its flaws, this qualifying format is infinitely better than the old "12 lap" deal, where there would frequently be literally no action for 30 minutes or more.

What I see as being a reasonable compromise would be providing an extra set of tyres that would be available to the teams for qualifying (and allowing the teams to discard a set of the same compound tyres after qualifying), so there would be less incentive to be conservative and not run.

[SiLo]

Aren't pirelli trying to make that happen?

[mnmracer]

It's a bit short-sighted. By forcing them on to the track, they are giving up their race strategy. I prefer seeing more action in the race and a little action in Q3 with cars that don't matter for pole anyway. But if you prefer qualifying action over race action, go ahead.

[Mr Alcatraz]

If it was instituted what is to stop a team from from just doing an out lap and another slow timed lap. I think it's ok if they want to play that strategy. This way they stay out of the way of teams that are running all out for grid positions. MHO

[Max Speed]

What should not be forgotten is that some spectators can only afford to attend qualifying, therefore it is the responsibility of teams and drivers to respect that.

[Mr Alcatraz]

What should not be forgotten is that some spectators can only afford to attend qualifying, therefore it is the responsibility of teams and drivers to respect that.

Why is deciding on a strategy that the teams feel is in their best interest shirking a responsibility, and disrespecting the gallery when it is a known legal choice that a team may use this strategy. I don't think every team that decides to not run in Q3 have made that decision until they actually do q1 and q2 and find for whatever reasons that in those conditions they have done their best in q2 and the car is just not working as well as they hoped.

Going along with your reasoning I could submit that fans that can only afford race day tickets, would feel cheated if their team ran q3 with full knowledge that they have compromised their race performance by not having another new set of skins. But I still would not call it disrespectful! The teams are not responsible to go against what they think is in their best interest because they are obliged to consider what their fans might think.

[lebesset]

don't understand the argument ...there is ALWAYS a fight for the first 3 rows ...thereafter you pretty well know who will be where behind them ...eg would you expect force india to be ahead of the mercs this weekend ?

so let those teams improve their tyre position , help their chances of getting up to the grandee teams in the race ; for some teams getting into Q3 is like getting pole !

it ain't broke ...don't fix it ; forcing the teams to run would actually worsen their chances in the race , and they would have been better off starting on row 6 ...that can't be correct

[Pierce89]

give a fresh set to all q3 teams and take that set back away. Let everyone start on new tires.
Problem solved.

[smellybeard]

They could introduce a 107% rule for every session. If you don't get within 107% of the fastest time of the session, you drop back to the back of the previous session's qualifiers.

Edit - One thing I have noticed is that I pay a lot more attention to the first session these days. It's by far the best to watch and the most exciting. Perhaps we could make it one hour long and decide all the grid positions...

[raymondu999]

Personally I think the only solution is to have quali-only tyres for Q3. A set of tyres that is only given for Q3; and then taken away after Q3; so it would be mad to not run on them. Even if you had something like a 103% cutoff time for Q3; it wouldn't stop people just driving to a target time; which wouldn't be that much better

[ESPImperium]

Im going left feild here;

3 Car teams, best 2 cars from each team are the ones who go thruto Q2 in a 45 minuite Q1 session. Each driver must do at least 12 laps to be able to have his times activated so to get cars on track for much more time.
Q2 the 2 best cars from each team are then go again in this 10 min session where to get your grid posistion. Each driver is limited to a single timed lap, no wimpy 4 or 5 lap run to get the tires up to temp.

The top 10 start on the Q2 tires.

As for tire allocations, For race and quali each car is given 2 prime and 4 option sets, there will be a set thats set aside for Q2 in each drivers allocation.

The weekend allocation will be as follows:
Friday Practice: 3 prime - 2 option
Saturday Practice: 1 Prime - 2 Option
Quali/Race: 2 prime - 2 option 1 set of Options are set aside for Q2 if a driver gets thru)

[Tyler]

I think qualifying is perfect the way it is at the moment.
Having the knockout stages was a brilliant idea, it adds a lot of excitement, almost like watching 3 mini races.
This system has really made qualifying an event in itself.

I remember when the old systems were in place, it wasn't such a big deal if I missed it, now I HAVE to watch qualifying.
There used to be long periods of time when there were no cars on the track and you used to have to wait right until the end for the big guns to finally get out on the track.
With the new system there is hardly a time when there isn't a car on the track.

I understand why some people are frustrated when some of the drivers decide to sit q3 out to save their tires but I think it makes it quite interesting in that it adds another dimension to the teams strategies.
We still get plenty of action even in Q3 as the top guys will always need to go out to get a good grid position - so we get action and strategy!

If the day ever comes when noone is going out in q3 then I agree that we should give them an extra pair of tires which are taken away at the end as Pierce89 suggested.
For now however it's proving to be very exciting and popular so they should leave it be as long as it remains that way.

[tathan]

If anyone is genuinely upset that they didn't see a Force India do one flying lap, at one particular moment, during an otherwise tense shootout, over a full GP weekend, then I would suggest there's something missing in your life.