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

senna21 · Mar 11, 2005

GTE said:

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.
Click to expand...

Excellent points.

As far as the old system being boring up until the last 15 minutes or so, a lot of that blame could be put on the TV feed. If there ever was a time to include driver profiles or technical segments this would be it. I enjoy seeing those items in the broadcast but I'd much prefer it outside of the race when something might actually happen. You could easily fill 20min of dead track time in the old qualifying with those kinds of items. Granted It's not great for the track audience but, nothing is ever going to be perfect.

As stated before the race wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped it would be. But, it's the first race of the season and it was on kind of an odd-ball track. Street sections with purpose built track sections. The next race we'll be able to see these cars really stretch their legs. Don't forget they weren't that far off last years pace even with the two race engine rule, decrease of down force, and only one set of tires.

I think as the year rolls on the tire rule will bear fruit. I for one could barely see any "marble" build up at the end of the race. I'd imagine that when we get to tracks like Monaco where it usually ends up being only one line on the track it'll help tremendously with overtaking.

Although I love Ferrari I was happy to see some different names/manufacturers from last year in regards to points placement.

BigAl · Mar 11, 2005

Agree and don't like the rule changes either.

Conversations

Alerts

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

senna21 F1 Rookie

BigAl F1 Veteran

Share This Page