Single car qualifying was excrutiatingly boring, and immensely unfair in fickle weather.

The earlier 4 timed laps format was boring, because nobody went out until the track was cleaned by other cars, or the clock ran down. Then you had everybody on track, but only for the last 5 minutes of an hour session.

Having an hour-long session with unlimited laps is how it ought to be, Let folks drive until they're happy with their time. Probem is, it's "expensive." You need tires and fuel for that.

I rather like the current knockout format, where the best get the clearest track for themselves at the end. Ten cars running together is a much clearer track than 18, 20, or 26 cars trying to post a time at the same time. But fuel load shouldn't be part of qualifying.

You may get some of your wish. I believe I heard that next year there will be no refueling. One tank for the whole race will mean everyone starts on a full tank. Of course they will have to drive like slow turtles to make the tank last. Not looking forward to that aspect.

Regards
Bill

GreyWolf74 - 26 July 2009 07:17 PM

I don't know where this "knockout format" came from and I don't really understant it. When I first got interested in the sport back in the late 60s, "qualifying" on a road circuit meant two things:

( 1 ) Everyone went out on the track at the same time and drove as fast as they could. All laps were timed, and which ever hot lap a driver put together was his qualifying time. If he couldn't get an empty stretch of track long enough to do an unimpeded lap, tough. You could claim any time from Friday or Saturday.

( 2 ) The fastest X number of cars were in the race, period. The only "special circumstance" would be an exemption for previous World Champion drivers, who were "grandfathered" into the field, provided they weren't bog slow.

In all of this, there was no discussion of which tyres the driver used or how much fuel he carried on board. The tyres were changed for something capable of lasting 200 miles and everyone started on full tanks because there were no pit stops. What you had at the start was what you had for the race.

Now? The qualification proceedures have gotten Macchiavelian, or at least Rube Goldberg-like. And starting on "whatever was in the tank when qualifying ended," or "whatever we felt like putting in the tank according to our strategy" is unnecessarily complicated.

Personally, I'd like to see everyone have the same amount of practice and qualifying time. I would also like to see everyone start on full tanks. That way, no one has an advantage at the start of the race. Once you've used up your first fuel load, then you can start playing the "fuel strategy" game, but not before.

If you remember that this form of qualifying stems from 1998-2001 time, when Bernie and Max were trying to limit Schumi from winning so much. I remember bernie saying somewhere that its not too much fun to watch one guy lap the field, if its going to be like that why show up. There is no competition. Anyhow, they changed the format, now is that the real reason for changing it, sure I could buy that from max and bernie, but did they claim that, i doubt it. And my dates could be a year or two off but its true none the less.