F1 Qualifying - A New Approach

[TedN]

In the April 10th edition of Autosport, Jonathan Noble in his weekly column tossed around ideas with a few colleagues on how to spice up the F1 races. They came up with th following .... reverse-grid qualifying:

- do away with cuurent 3-segment qualifying
- Saturday 1-hour session would be turned into a sudden-death competition race
- a rolling start in reverse-championship positions
- drivers would race for 22 laps, with the man at the back being black-flagged each lap to decide grid
- last man standing takes pole position
- teams and drivers would have cars optimized for overtaking
- much greater prospect that this system would deliver mixed-up grids for the Sunday race

Sounds interesting. Too gimmicky?

Ted

[gerhard911]

Was Doug Boles on that committee?

:yuck:

[cameraman]

It would guarantee that some of the championship leaders would be at the back of the grid as there is no way that all the fast cars can swamp all the slower ones in one lap. It would be a mess.

And **** the idea of rolling starts in F1 now and forever.

[SteveH]

Out of all of that, I like the elimination, last man standing race. Not sure that is for F1, though.

[opinionated ow]

Let's just have a 1 hour free for all like the old days. Bring back qualifying engines. Get ride of the electric crap. 3L naturally aspirated reciprocating engine. Any configuration you like. Refuel if you want to. Tyre competition.

[WickerBill]

I don't think qualifying is the problem. The rulebook that basically forbids free thinking is the problem. With the exception of the Brawn double diffuser (and excellent KERS) in 2009, when's the last time a team propping up the back has even had an opportunity to innovate?

[TravelGal]

I think WB is right, of course. From a strictly observer standpoint, I also like the idea of last man standing taking the pole. It embodies the ruthlessness of the sport with a nod to "on any given race day...."

[Insomniac]

If they could optimize the cars for passing in qualifying, why wouldn't they do it for the race? :D

I think reverse order sounds good on paper, but the fastest car doesn't always find its way to the front. The middle teams would end up at the front of the grid with back markers in the middle and front runners near the back. If you want to do that, then do qualifying as is and let the fastest driver choose where they want to start and award points for the # of positions gained. (I'm not suggesting this, just the logical (imo) next step from basically flipping the starting order.)

Last man standing wouldn't have much of a point unless you did reverse the grid though. Otherwise, it's just a race where you remove potential traffic.

And my usual complaint. They should simplify the aero rules greatly so the elements are all eliminated and they use simple wings, bodywork and undertrays. Allow development on everything.

[mapguy]

What was so wrong with the old qualifying format?

[SteveH]

What was so wrong with the old qualifying format?

Absolutely nothing

[Rogue Leader]

This would be great in the era of spare cars. But with all those rabid dogs going from the pack trying to rabidly pass the slow cars within a time limit all you're going to see is cars getting smashed up, and people who generally don't belong in very high grid positions being there because of dumb luck or the inability to pass fast enough because of traffic (yes I know that is racing, but thats what the RACE is for).