Changes to Quali format at French GP

How I wish that Max Mosley stop interfering with the rules all the time!
His decisions seem to be made by TV executives who dictate what is good viewing or not.
Has shortening the final qualifs by 5 mins nothing to do with offering an extra 5 mins of TV adverts? I don't think so. It isn't a sport anymore, more a business.
Soon, to understand the proceedings at a GP you will have to carry with you a rule book.

 

I thought that extra five minutes was advertizing time for the car sponsors.

Heck, the whole reason they dropped the original one hour qualifying format was to give each car more camera time. They added "friday drivers" to give the back markers more camera time.

Now they're shortening the parade, just because it's boring? Hello? Where have you been, Max?

F1 run by a group that automatically changes the rules in response to the latest complaint is going to vascillate a lot. So how do constant rule changes "save money"?

They're measuring all the wrong metrics.

 

Pat Symonds even commented that the first ten minutes of the third section have very limited interest: the cars are just going round in circles to burn fuel.

Carol

 

The best qualifying I saw was when there was no restriction - 5 or 10 years ago.
Drivers had one hour to qualify, without restriction on engine change,fuel, tires, etc...
We saw some banzai laps then!
Remember Piquet, Rosberg, or Mansell going 'all balls out' for pole position.
Strangely enough, when Prost was racing, he insisted in qualifying with his McLaren in race configuration and was not too worried about the opposition.
Why can't we bring back this system?

 

Qualifing at Indy was almost like a race. Beats the single car sessions bigtime.

 

I agree, and it was by FAR more interesting than the race.

 

I hope to never see that boring system again: 55 minutes of watching some Minardis clean the track and then all top teams at once in the last five minutes. Just plain stupid.

I like the current format.

 

My point of view is that the current qualifying system CANNOT be spectacular, since the drivers think first to save their engine, which may have already one qualif. session plus one race under their belt and must go the whole race the next day.
They won't dare to push too hard since a breakage would put them 10 places back on the grid - not a problem if you drive an Aguri or a Midland, I know, but a severe penalty if you are a front runner.
Now, they are under instruction to burn some fuel first, then qualify and on the way back to the pits to run on the marbles to gather some discarted rubber, even to pick up grass outside the track to make up the weight!
What kind of qualif is that?
The present system is absolutely stupid.
Agreed that before the first part of the hour was the moment of glory for Minardi, etc... that were alone on the track and got TV exposure, but as the clock ticked, it was becoming more and more frantic. At least the front runners could go on full attack without worrying about fuel left in the tank, engine mileage, etc... The last 10 minutes used to be phenomenal, better than the GP itself - that's how I remember it.

 

I like the knockout format and this is a good change.

 

MVP in the pits ? The team Attourney.