1604 replies to this topic

[Rediscoveryx]

I was pleasantly surprised. It was not a boring procession as I had predicted. However, the main feature that has made this weekend interesting remains the axing of FP.

I’ve had these ideas before, that F1 shouldn’t be married to one particular weekend format. Shake-ups are good (assuming that they don’t go too far). If this format is used a couple of times each year, one lap qually at a few other venues (Monaco, please!), and the traditional Q1-Q3 at the remaing half or so of races then I’d be for that. This format every race? No thanks.

Oh, and it’s worth reiterating; restrict FP to one session will be a huge improvement.

[IrvTheSwerve]

I generally agree with your posts, but I could hardly disagree more with this. Before the sprint, many people were predicting that the sprint would see everyone being ultra-cautious, that it would be a procession, nobody would want to actually race, and that we would end up with no incidents and a grid that still largely matched the qualifying session.

 

That isn't remotely what happened. Alonso made a banzai start. Verstappen got the jump on Lewis. Perez blew it trying to make a pass. There were various battles up and down the field. Mazepin spun (OK, so that bit was predictable). We got what you would expect from a race, and we get to do it all again today.

 

I'd have a lot more respect for those who hate this idea if they based their arguments on what actually happened.

 

That’s the problem for me (or one of them at least). I feel like I’ve seen the race already and it’s taken a lot of the excitement away from today for me.

 

You can have too much of a good thing.

[Misk]

Havn't read through the comments above so I may be repeating what other's have already said but here goes: It didn't work for me. In the usual quali format you're in anticipation about who will be on pole/the grid line up right up until the end of the final session. In the sprint race it was pretty obvious Verstappen was going to take pole halfway through the race and it was already pretty obvious what the order of the top 5 would be bar any mechanical failures. I kind of lost interest in the second half of the race. Not sure if anyone else felt the same?

[Clatter]

Havn't read through the comments above so I may be repeating what other's have already said but here goes: It didn't work for me. In the usual quali format you're in anticipation about who will be on pole/the grid line up right up until the end of the final session. In the sprint race it was pretty obvious Verstappen was going to take pole halfway through the race and it was already pretty obvious what the order of the top 5 would be bar any mechanical failures. I kind of lost interest in the second half of the race. Not sure if anyone else felt the same?

 

Do you stop watching the GP at the halfway point as well? Often the positions are pretty much decided by then as well.

[nookie]

I don't know what that means either.

qualification as the race term implies is derived from the word 'quality' which in turn is a test to see if a driver is indeed qualified to compete in a race. if you're too slow, you're not allowed to race. this is why it's called qualification. it doesn't inherently mean grid positions as back in the days of yore, they drew straws who were to start where but this was later scrapped and they used the qualification to determine grid as well. for convenience.

 

the friday's qualification was therefore a proper qualification no matter how you look at it, because not only does it use the 107% rule to test if you're qualified to take part in the race, but it also determined the grid for a race. i have no idea why this should now be referred to as 'pre-qualification' when nothing of what it does have changed.