Formula One chiefs scrap qualifying change Formula One commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone said Monday that governing body the FIA have scrapped plans to change the format of qualifying for next month's British Grand Prix. Ecclestone, who has criticised the current one-lap format as not exciting enough, said after a meeting of the Formula One Commission here that the FIA had vetoed an idea to replace it with two free-for- all sessions. After suggestions from Ecclestone, teams had come up with a revised system which would see two 25-minute sessions in which drivers would have to complete a total of 12 laps. But the FIA, concerned that a new format would cut the television exposure for smaller teams, rejected the proposals during a meeting at Heathrow Monday. Next month's British Grand Prix at Silverstone was to have been the first track to feature the new system which was designed to give viewers and spectators a more interesting Saturday qualifying. Source AFP (www.f1live.com) Again the sport is compramized due to the whining of smaller teams like Minardi and Jordan. Do you think the new qualifying would have been better than the single lap qualifying?
Today´s Q-format has one yet fundamental mistake in it: It fails to recognize the difference between qualifyingpace and racepace. Or in other words, it fails to acknowledge the value of a qualifyingsetup. Under the current rules it is racepace that determines the grid, not qualifyingpace. So the car that is quikest on racepace, is ahead to begin with and so on untill the back of the grid. No wonder overtaking doesn´t occur that much in modernday F1. Overtaking is not an option when the cars are already sorted out on racepace. Therefor, the car behind is per definition not as quick as the car in front. Of course, tactics can get a quicker car behind a relatively slower car, but tactics are all pretty much the same, so that isn´t really making up for anything. The FIA should abolish the current format as soon as possible. I say: return to the old format of 12 laps during an hour and make it mandatory to do one hotlap (so, three laps in total) every fifteen minutes. Airteam for lesser teams shouldn´t be a problem. The director is FIA-employed, so it shouldn´t be to hard to order him to spend a certain amount of minutes on lesser teams. The audience won´t mind, because the audience wants to see all cars.
Modded > Pre-whine. Smarty Jones was favored. Birdstone won at Belmont... Birdstone was the longshot.
I don't think the TV director is FIA employed. But you point to the problem. The audience really would prefer to see the fight for Nth place than to watch the leader lapping all by his lonesome. This is a problem with the TV production team, not with the race rules. Tweaking qualifying rules isn't going to fix the problem that TV doesn't know what its viewers want to see. Actually, we're both blowing smoke. The informed viewers aren't really the "target audience". There has been "intelligent" (well, relatively) programming. It failed for lack of sponsors. Intelligent viewers don't respond as well to the commercials as the mindless zombies. So we get 40 channels of NASCAR, and FIA diddles with Q-rules to get coverage for back markers in F1. Uh huh. I still think the programmers are missing a bet. A picture-in-picture deal where the race stays in a little window during commercials will keep more viewers in front of the sets during commercials, rather than ducking out for another beverage. And would solve the problem of TV running their commercials during, say, Minardi's hot laps.
