Formula 1 to trial tweaked Qualifying format in Hungary Image Unavailable, Please Login Formula 1 will be trialing a tweaked Qualifying format at the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix, something originally planned for the cancelled Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. The new Qualifying format was planned for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix back in May, but that race was cancelled after the Northern Italian region was hit by floods, so the experiment will take place for the first time this weekend in Budapest. The new format will see the teams and drivers restricted on tyre choices in Qualifying, as they will have to use the Hard compound in Q1, the Medium in Q2, while the Soft tyre will be only allowed in Q3. If the session is considered a Wet Session, then tyre choice will be free. Currently, the teams have the free choice to use any tyre they want in any session, with slower teams using opting for Softs even in Q1 to try and make it into Q2 and beyond, while faster teams usually save their Softs for later attempting to make it out of Q1 on harder compounds. The sport is running this experiment to try and see whether Pirelli can bring fewer tyre sets to race weekends as only 11 sets of tyres will be available per car while currently each driver gets 13. This means tyre consumption will be reduced by 40 sets (160 tyres per weekend), which adds up to 920 sets (3680 tyres) over the course of a 23-race season. Under the new Qualifying format trial, each driver will have three sets of Hards, four sets of Mediums, and four sets of Softs at his disposal for the whole weekend. On a standard weekend, each driver gets two Hard sets, three Medium sets and eight Soft sets. These are only dry weather tyres. This experiment will be repeated again during the 2023 Italian Grand Prix at Monza in September. https://www.grandprix247.com/2023/07/17/formula-1-to-trial-tweaked-qualifying-format-in-hungary/
so they're going to make qualifying more predictable, so they can save a few sets of tires? the austerity era of F1 kinda sucks.
Way to ruin the most exciting part of the F1 weekend. It's bizarre to me that there's this entire body of people who make up the FIA and F1 yet they seem to miss the point of racing altogether. All of these initiatives are fine... the environmental stuff... the LGBT_QRX_LMNOP... moves all of it. I have zero problem with companies or industries or individuals using their position to forward ideas. HOWEVER... not at the expense of the mission. Racing first. Competition first. Then all this other stuff. That saying that you "first have to be in it to win it" rings true here. If by this new tire move it just naturally excludes mid-tier teams from Q2 and Q3, there's zero chance they can take best advantage of mistakes or other attrition. It just makes no sense to me. If you want variability, just let the teams do what they want. If they want 10 sets of softs and want to run 5 pitstops... let them. Let them run their strategies the way they want.
The way I see it, the F1 driver that sets the fastest lap doesn't have to start the race on the fastest tire that the fastest lap was set at as the rule implies. So, they can start the race on any tire should the F1 driver chooses too.
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