Is This My Imagination? Or Did F1 Qualifying Really Suck?

I think it would have been better if the weather was better. If the weather had hit qualifying last year it would have been just as boring...

 

You'll probably get a lot of negative replies about the format, but the weather threw things off far too much to make a judgement, a few more races will be needed to see how it will really work out. On paper it looks to be the best of both worlds-- raw speed in one session, fuel strategy in the other.

My one big objection is that I think both sessions should be on Saturday. I thought it was anticlimatic to have Q2 right before the race, and it was absurd to have drivers in a press conference before the main event.

With SPEED showing Q2 immediately before the race it made for a tremendously long view session. I love F1, but nearly 4 hours at once is more than I necessarily have time for.

 

Aside from weather, I agree some of the excitement of F1 qualifying has fizzled out. When each diver would get so many laps to qualify the competition seemed fiercer. And there wasn't the problem of pushing to the limit to beat the best qualifying time because they could work on the engine/car prior to the race.
But because some started using highly tuned engines for qualifying with higher HP that didn't have to last but more than 10 or so laps, regulations caught up with them to even the playing field. And in the process the magic was gone.

 

Compared to the old qualifying format(1 hour of qualifying) I do like the one lap qualifying. I do agree with you that this years format sucks. But I don't think this is the only aspect of F1 I do not like this year. The biggest problem is the new rules. I hate the fact they cannot change tires during the race. I think one of highlights in a race is the pitstops. One of my relatives, who saw his first F1 race this past weekend even said it was boring not to see teams change their tires during the pitstop. I also hate the fact they have to use one engine for every two races. I see F1 becoming more like Champcar. This is F1 the pinnacle of racing and I think with the new rules, they are heading in the wrong direction.

 

A few years back, I saw an interview with Mauro Forgheri. When asked what he thought of F-1 today, he replied: "it's being suffocated by the regulations."

 

I disagree and if you watched the race the announcers kept referring to last years lap record and the year before. The idea of the regulations crimping F1 is far fetched and the evidence of it was the first race of season.

 

I think we need to see how it really works with equal conditions for all before really knowing. The rain sucked because of the way it only affected some drivers, but at the same time it was cool watching some rain action. I'm starting to actually feel like I couldn't care less about qualifying. I still miss the old days of one hour, 12 laps, have at it. Otherwise, bring on the race.

 

The new regulations have been put in place because of idiots such as Jordan and Minardi who constantly complain about the regulations. Nothing is good. Apparently ferrari wins everything because the world is against them. It is always one big conspiracy theory.

The new qualifying sucks! In fact, I will go as far as saying that it would be better to have a lottery system instead of having the new qualifying.

I really wish we would bring back the rules from the 2000 season. There was nothing broke back then, there was no reason to "fix" the rules.

 

The old system of one hour with 12 laps would still be our preference and was frequently a good show. The periods of inactivity were more than offset by the chance of seeing a good fight for grid position among the top contenders. Something nice to watch on TV and a good reason to be at the track on Saturday at those races we were able to attend. We stopped paying much attention to qualifying about half way through last season. After seeing the split format in Australia, I doubt we'll bother with it very much at all this year. Sad really, but at least the races are still worth watching.
John

 

I too miss the one hour sessions. I also don’t see how this year is any better than last year, if you make a mistake or catch the wrong weather you are just as screwed cause you can never make that time back up in the 2nd session. I think the lottery / pick-a-card is the best idea yet if excitement is the only goal… Minardi front row getting passed by 8 cars in turn 1…

 

I also like the one hour format especially toward the end I remember watching and sitting at the edge of my seat to see who's going to beat the time. It was fantastic.

But one thing most don't realize, major teams with deep pockets started using highly specialized engines probably with more exotic metallurgy to push the hp and RPMS just so they would beat the next team. And the engine had to only last 10 or 12 laps. In the eyes of the viewer that's still great competition but the playing field now has elevated and only 3 or four teams could really compete in that sense. So I'd rather see the regulations impose the way they have evolved than like IRL every team to get the same engine and chassis.

 

The biggest complaint against the 1 hour qualifying was TV companies didn't like the fact that if the tracks were heating up the main guys waited untilthe last 15 minutes. Why not simply state that in that 1 hour 4 attempts had to be made and that they had to be in each of the 4 quarters?

The current set up is so poor that with 20 races and 20 positions on the grid I would prefer they just rotate where people started each race. Most of the Fchat/corporate go-karting events I go to do this and it adds excitement and everyone thinks it to be fair. Politics and revenues will never let this happen but think about the increased levels of overtaking and season long tac-tics!

 

I guess I'm alone, but I like having an opportunity to watch each driver do one complete "do or die" lap and this year I get to see it twice, and they both count. In the old 1 hr days it all happened in the last 5 minutes and the camera was rarely on the cars I wanted to see.

Even though the rain screwed things up, I enjoyed watching drivers deal with changing track conditions.

 

Here's a stupid question I should already know the answer to: Are they still allowing some teams a third car during practice?

 

I didn't get to see the qualifying (heck I just saw the race last night) but I miss the days when Senna, Prost, and Mansell would wind up trading fast lap after fast lap in the closing seconds of qualifying.

It needs to go back in a hurry.

 

F1 2005 = Plain Ass Boring

The one engine rule sucks. Will that mean every other race is good? The first race everyone saves thier engine and the second race they try?

Anyone at P9 or above doesn't try- why rag out the engine if you aren't going to score points.

 

Yes, I noticed De LaRosa with BMW was running a third car to get race distance (two practice sessions) information for the team.

 

I can live with the qualifying, i mean look at the grid it was all over the place and it shows what a good driver can do,,...eg Rubens. It will keep it from being a precession

But the race boring. With a capital B

I can live with 1 engine, but no tyre changes !!!

Give them all just 1 tyre change please.

Then there is still the question when do they change them,, but for Christs sake 25 people kneeling down doing nothing in a pit stop ,, Id rather go to the local filling station and watch.

 

We should eject Max Mosley from his position of authority in F1. He has almost single-handedly ruined everything that made F1 great. Senna21 has it right. We should bring back the old qualy format from the late 80's and early 90's.

And while we're at it, we should allow multi-format engines (4cyl Turbo, V12, V8, V6), allow tire changes in pit stops and let the engineers put in all the gizmos they can possibly think up. F1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport and at the rate we're going, it's going to rank under ASSCAR for excitement. Mayble next year, we'll see then driving on oval tracks...

These rules are crap.

 

I also loved the old qualifying. It was as good as the race and kept my attention.

 

In my veiw, not only did qualifying suck but the race itself sucked. Pole position ,aquired before the rain; wins, only a couple of passes, it seemed more of an enduro than a race. Hope there's going to be more excitement during the race than excitement from the attourneys before the race.I've got the feeling this season is going to suck. I sound like a vacuum cleaner salesman....sucks don't it?

 

The biggest disadvantage was the weather.I reckon they should have qualifying over the 2 days if the weather is bad.For examplewhen the first guys went out an ddid their laps in the dry thats their times.If it starts to rain then either they all redo the qualifying in the rain or wait until race day.If the weather clears up then those that didn't have a qualifying lap on saturday have their chance then.If on race day it rains then everybody qualifies again in the wet.This way one way or another it should be fair for eveyone...or just move the race to Sydney where it hardly ever rains!

 

Thats just the point. There are no "do or die" laps in qualifying anymore. Drivers will take risks in setting the fastest time when they have four attempts. Drivers won´t take risks when they have only one attempt (per session).

Another big mistake in last years format was that it was designed to determine gridpositions by racepace, there for putting faster cars in front to begin with, so who is going to overtake who in the race? Exactly: nobody.

Back in the older days, gridpositions were determined by qualifyingpace, and since a qualifying-setup could differ quite alot from a race-setup, the cars in front on the grid weren´t necessarily the fastest cars in the race. Today, that is exactly the case which is the reason why the outcome of the race is pretty much determined in qualifying, thus making the actual race obsolete if it wasn´t for the odd overtaking-manoeuvre or DNF. As a matter of fact, the cars have gained hugely in reliability over the years, so DNF´s hardly ever occur as well.

It just shows how clueless the FIA actually is when it comes to making a raceformat which is in the interest of racing itself and in the interest of entertainment.

At least we have to lowfuel-qualifyinglaps back, but it is just too little in the current format.

One hour-sessions weren´t always spectacular, but sometimes, they were. The one-lap sessions have never been spectacular and they can´t be spectacular.

 

Tangent, but… Dono’s point is something I often speculate about. By making all the regulations so insanely stringent (ala NASCAR) the FIA is ensuring that the more $$$ you spend, the better you do. Not to sound too sappy, but the “rogue” engineer of the past has been all but eliminated. BAR had their front wheel no-lock diff setup there, but other than that, who has tried something really unique in recent years. IMO, this lack of creative license makes it harder for backmarkers to advance. It is simply boiled down diminishing return on investment, any the small teams don’t have the extra $20m to make the aero package or drivetrain package 2% more efficient. There’s a greater risk for the slower teams by having more open rules, but given that they lose every weekend anyway, it’s a risk that most of them should be willing to take… risk vs. reward.

Say they were to allow any cylinder # and configuration, but have a displacement cap based on # of cylinders (circular pistons, nice try Honda). And whatever engine design you start with at Australia you have to use until the end of the season. 1.0L turbo 4, 3.5L – NA6, 3.0L – NA8, 2.5L – NA10, etc. Ferrari’s (and other juggernauts) are not going to develop every engine, they’ll speculate and develop one, maybe two initially. Say Ferrari picks a V10 and a flat 12. Maybe Jordan builds a 1.0L turbo flat 4 and has a huge advantage. Maybe Jordan gets massacred. The bottom line is without greater risk (of losing by an even greater margin), there is a 0.00% chance of any upsets ever occurring in F1.

Now we can get back to pointing out how no qualifying specific cars, etc. ensure the race is a parade.