Qualifying session changed........ again

[maltafan]

More detail about the tweaks to F1's knockout qualifying format for 2008 have emerged.

It was revealed in September that the F1 'Sporting Working Group' had agreed to rid the sport of the controversial fuel-burning phenomenon, chiefly by reducing the time for the 'Q3' format from 15 minutes.

La Gazzetta dello Sport now quotes Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali as revealing more about the new format, which is believed to have been recently ratified by the World Motor Sport Council.

He said Q1 will now last for "20 minutes instead of 15", while Q2 remains at 15 minutes.

"Q3 becomes 10 minutes, instead of 15," Domenicali added, explaining that competitors will no longer be allowed to add fuel to their cars before the grand prix.

[maltafan]

So there will be less fuel burning and that 5 minutes less in the last stint means approx 3 laps less of qualifying. And with the new fuel rule that they can't refuel before the race, it means that we will see less laps in quali.

[F1 Champion]

I don't think there'll be any fuel burning at all. They will just go out and make their qual runs.

[iceman1]

It'll be the same as it is now,apart from Q3, they'll have 10mins to set a fast lap and can't come in to refuel

[megasyxx]

it had a minor revision....mainly because of the additional teams/cars

[AzShadow]

Well, they didn't come to refuel at the pits, but just to change the tyres. But before you got all the fuel back you spent in Q3, now you don't. So they probably won't do so many laps because it might unnecessarily waste some fuel.

[maltafan]

The more laps they do on quali, the earlier they have to pit or the heavier they have to run. So. there will surely be less cars on track during qualifying.

[F1 Champion]

it had a minor revision....mainly because of the additional teams/cars

It'll still be 11 teams and 22 drivers next year...

I hoped that they would remove race fuel from Q3 and go with minimum fuel level. The race fuel quali doesn't add anything anymore...

[Lilellatho]

The way I see it, it will only damage the qualy show (or what's left of it), cause there will be less time on the track for the top teams so as not to waste fuel and even more uncertainties for the actual speed of the car in the race. Some may even do a single timed lap! So I don't get the fuel restriction thing..

Yeah, no more fuel burning, but it's not like it was boring as hell seing top cars doing their thing on track and maybe get some great onboards now was it? $peace

I just hate that so many rules are changed year after year and none seem to tackle the problem of the lack of overtaking which is THE issue in this sport.

[reyhan]

[Zack]

The way I see it, it will only damage the qualy show (or what's left of it), cause there will be less time on the track for the top teams so as not to waste fuel and even more uncertainties for the actual speed of the car in the race.

less on board videos

[megasyxx]

it had a minor revision....mainly because of the additional teams/cars

It'll still be 11 teams and 22 drivers next year...

I hoped that they would remove race fuel from Q3 and go with minimum fuel level. The race fuel quali doesn't add anything anymore...

i see.....i got it wrong though, as the tally of 7 out, 7 out, final 10 gives a total of 24. was it because prodrive didn't make it for this year?

[AzShadow]

It was planned to be like that if there had been 12 teams, but as Prodrive won't be entering it works as before.

[metalhead188]

this change only really affects the 3rd run group and even with that youll still see them puss all out for 4 to 5 laps.... and prodrive deserves to have the honor of the 12th team taken away for not keeping true o their agreements.

[iceman1]

The FIA states in its rules on qualifying:
The qualifying practice session will take place on the day before the race from 14.00 to 15.00. The session will be run as follows :
A. From 14.00 to 14.20 (Q1) all cars will be permitted on the track and at the end of this period the slowest seven cars will be prohibited from taking any further part in the session. Lap times achieved by the seventeen remaining cars will then be deleted.

B. From 14.27 to 14.42 (Q2) the seventeen remaining cars will be permitted on the track and at the end of this period the slowest seven cars will be prohibited from taking any further part in the session. Lap times achieved by the ten remaining cars will then be deleted.

C. From 14.50 to 15.00 (Q3) the ten remaining cars will be permitted on the track.
The above procedure is based upon a Championship entry of 24 cars. If 22 cars are entered only six cars will be excluded after Q1 and Q2.