A few minor changes during the current qualifying format worth mentioning: * Cars having a party mode got dropped. * Starting the race on the tyre that you used during Q2 also got dropped
I actually kinda miss that Q2 tyre rule. It adds an element of strategy for race day. They also coupled it that rule where drivers in Q3 get free tyre choice if they don't set a time.
I think we all know that elimination qualifying back in 2016 was the best. The drama and suspense of drivers getting knocked out whilst sat in the pitlane is unmatched
We can’t knock them for trying and then cancelling it when it didn’t work. I think it’s better than them being stubborn and stuck in their ways and never trying to improve something. It’s like their stubbornness to allow an 11th team
@paper plane cmon watching each driver individually around Monaco would be awesome. It’s the one track where you can really tell how close to the edge they are.
@Av1nash23 , for two reasons. Firstly, the lower teams would receive a theoretically grippier track (with more rubber having been deposited on the racing line and more dust/debris cleared). Secondly, it gave spectators a chance to watch their entire lap. George Russell was arguably even more impressive at Williams than he is now at Mercedes. The ability to have watched his quali laps in their entirety would have helped people realize that the talent gap between drivers in F1 is usually much narrower than the machine gap between teams.
Yesss! This 🫶 I mean there's so many drivers laps that we NEVER see during quali 🫣 plus mistakes are punished, with current format, if you make a mistake, you usually always have the time to fix it
If I remember right, the 2 x 1 hour quali was 'killed off' by Senna, who sometimes didn't even bother to turn up for one of those days. While others did the whole Fru/Sat, he turned up for Sat, did a few laps and pocketed P1. 😊
There were two changes which kinda came along at the same time. Pre 95, drivers had a limited number of qualifying tyres, which limited the number of laps they could do. But tyres which would be useless after a single lap was "a bit silly" - so they switched to race tyres and limited the drivers to 12 laps . The second unconnected change was to get rid of the Friday session. Usually the track would be quicker on the Saturday - but sometimes it rained on the Sat which would render it a bit of an anticlimax.
I think you should have split out the different nuances of the current format. When refueling was a thing and starting the race on your qualifying fuel load was peak. A slower car could go for pole and it brought in more strategy to the race.
I absolutely loved that One-Lap-Shootout. Maybe, because it was that time I really got into F1 and I didn't know the former formats. But I still think, this was better, than today's format, because it really shows, who's fast on point, when it is important... You only get one shot to not miss your chance to blow...
Having been an F1 fan since the 90s and watching it now just as intently as I did then, I have to say qualifying today is easily the best. It’s so good I actually don’t remember the other formats in the early 2000s. The 90s… well I was a teen age kid so it’s understandable why I don’t remember it, I should remember something from when I was finishing college and doing engineering so I could potentially go and be an F1 engineer (didn’t happen I went into business after school)
One thing I would like to see, similar to Indycar is a special timing line before pit entry for qualifying so you don’t have slow cars on a cool down lap getting in the way. Once they complete there lap they can entry the pits straight away.
@@T_Mo271 I first saw back when Indycar were on the coast and they setting lap times and then diving straight into the pits. I didn’t realise what was happening for a while. Now following it more it is a great idea, as you also can get more laps in in qualifying as you don’t have the long cooldown lap.
In the Australian Supercars (touring cars) series, we have about 1/3 of the races each year where we run a ~20 minute all-in qualifying session that sets the grid from 11-whatever, and then a real Top-10 Shootout. Each of the top 10 drivers from qual gets 1 lap. They go out in reverse order from the qual session (so 10th hits the track 1st, down to 1st hitting the track last). 100% on team Matt here, the Jeopardy is palpable when it's only a single lap, but there's also one thing you're possibly understimating. It's just one driver against the track. No traffic, no missing the gap you wanted to be in, no getting hurried along on your out-lap by someone else. It's just one driver, one car, versus the track. If you watch some of the shootout laps around Mt Panorama over the years, there's some of the best driving I've ever seen. Greg Murphy set the 'Lap of the Gods' in 2003, a record which stood for 18 years, and will probably be hailed forever as one of the best laps of any track by any driver in any car.
I like the idea of of a Q3 one lap shootout. Combines the best qualifying formats, IMO, into one. My favorite qualifying format was the one lap shootout.
The initial 2005 season format wasn't just the two laps added together. The Saturday session was traditional qual fuel level running, then the Sunday session was run with the fuel levels at whatever the team intended to start the race with to complete their first stint. Thus a driver especially good at bonafide qualifying would be rewarded with a buffer between them and their principal rivals. By having outdone them a disproportionate amount relative to the strength of the cars, they now had some bonus time in the pocket to sneak additional race fuel into the Sunday session. Kimi and Jarno got the most out of this and both tended to run quite long before their first stop on the strength of their low fuel laps from Saturday. This was the source of a lot of Kimi's miraculous comeback drives after his scheduled Merc engine penalties and served to forge the Trulli Train legend.
Don't forget pre-qualifying which used to be a thing when there were too many cars. The slowest teams had a Friday pre-qualifying session where the fastest drivers among them would be eligible to join Saturday's main qualifying, and the slowest drivers would be eliminated from the rest of the weekend.
I do think that the Q1, Q2 then Q3 format is the best we've had. A single lap shootout Q3 would be awesome, maybe with the order being dictated by the results of Q2 in reverse, meaning that where you finish in Q2 impacts how good a chance you have I'm your final lap. Only issue I see would be changing weather conditions, you might get screwed out of a pole position because of the weather, that'd be painful for the drivers but would also cause a spectacle for the viewers if the usual top 3 had poor laps because they couldn't set a quick time.
As much as I love single lap qualy from the early 2000s and would love to see it come back I have to admit the current format is almost too good to replace now.
My Rating of your formats to rank/explain stuff. The old system from a platform which we can't speak the name with an appr. 5 minutes video explaining certain aspect of F1: 10/10 - It was to the point, had some clever humour and memes all around. I watched every second of it. It was great . . . the best you could find on UA-cam. The race best tweets - from a platform which we can't speak the name: 9/10. It had me in stitches most of the time. Only the race roundup at the I would skip. Now the NEW race/tweet review.: 8/10. Not bad, great insight, tweets again, but I'm not sure why, I'm can miss an episode and be ok with it. The NEW ranking stuff. (drivers, livery, qualy format etc.) 6/10. I noticed I am fast forwarding to the results. OMG, I'm so sorry. I know, I shouldn't. Please go back to do some short 5 minutes segments that we come to really love from you guys. I really miss that. They were entertaining, educating and addicting. Still, you're great and I i know you have something up your sleeve we haven't seen yet. Cheers!
Omg, I totally forgot this Elimination format. 😂 This is like the definition of "It's a good idea, if you don' t have (or consider) any of the information and circumstances, you have" I really think, this COULD work properly, but not in our era. This could have worked up until the 90s, maybe in the 2000's, but not today. Plus, as mentioned, you've got a properly working, good format already in usage... Never change a running system, except you've tested it a thousand times and know for sure, that the new system is better.
I'd probably find it boring in the long run, but I liked it when one could see each lap for each driver. Nowadays if let's say Sargeant does a perfect monstrous lap nobody even notices. I'd love a format that can give you the excitement but also sometimes gets more technical and lets you see what the drivers are actually doing to push to the limit.
What about a single lap qualifying but with the qualifying format we have today? Every driver gets to do a lap in Q1, the bottom 10 are eliminated, then the top 10 get a single lap in Q2
you can't really have single lap quali as it would heavily benefit the last driver on circuit more often than not as the track rubbers in. HOWEVER they could mitigate this by letting drivers out in reverse championship order. still gives other drivers a competitive edge though, so it wouldn't be the best sporting move in the world.
@@OK-fi4yq Then have them start in reverse order to the WC. Meaning Verstappen runs the first lap in the new season in Q3, Q2 and Q1 if he makes the later sessions. This would give "reverse grid" vibes where it give the track evolution edge to the drivers further in the back of the grid, but then again with quali taking this long the weather is a concern.
Q3 becomes Top 10 Shootout, 1 warm up lap, 1 timed lap, each driver has the track to themselves. it works so well in V8 Supercars for the Bathurst 1000. As one driver comes starts their timed lap, the next driver will start their outlap, then as the first driver finishes the timed lap the next driver starts their warm up lap where commentary can talk about the driver since the last race, then after the warm up the second driver starts their timed lap and the next driver starts their outlap again. condenses the action into maybe 45mins of a Q3 Shootout. drivers on warm up have to maintain a delta to keep the action going. hire me liberty media. thank me later.
I completely hate the idea of one shot qualifying. For me one of the best parts of qualifying is the first flying laps being set and then watching those 2 or 3 best drivers dig even deeper and push their car to the literal limits of the track in order to find more time in hopes of securing or stealing pole
the problem with today's qualifying is top teams never push for the first two sessions, always going for limited setups or used tyres. i feel like the idea of making them use hards in q3 then medium in q2 and then soft in q1 is a great solution to this
I have an idea that would be kind of a middle ground between one lap quali and the current system: the current system but each driver can only go out once each session. There could be different strategies, either risk it and only fuel for one lap in order to get a lap with fresh tyres and minimum fuel load, or prepare for something going wrong by fueling enough for a couple of flying laps and sacrificing a bit of performance.
What if someone crashes, it would be detrimental to others who are out on the track at the time. They could be seeing a red flag, or get puncture from debris etc.
You’ll love the qualifying format of the V8 Supercars then! 3 part qualifying with the Top 10 Shootout being a one lap assault for pole position with each driver getting the track to themselves.
I’d rather the qualifying vary, use the qualifying format that best fits the circuit. One shot for some circuits, current format for some, two or three shot qualifying, and whatever else.
What about two day Qual where Friday all cars go out one at a time do two laps and the top 10 move on to Sat where again one at a time the cars go out for two laps and set the order. You could see everyone's laps they would have a clear track for their Qual (my personal biggest issue, ruined laps) and you still have a knock out between Fri and Sat.
Wow that idea of 1 lap shootout in q3 never crossed my mind and now that you guys mentioned it I needed so badly. If they ever change Qualy again I hope they do that
quali should be: q1 5 slowest cars eliminated 15mins q2 next 5 slowest cars eliminated 15mins q3 1 lap shootout order based on reverse top 10 of q2. hence top 10 pushing hard in q2. I think this will generate exciting quali incoming rain may make drivers aim for 10th in q2 to try and get lap in q3 early. just a thought.
I agree with Matt. The qualifying format as it is nowdays is nearly perfect... But changing Q3 for a 1 lap shootout would be perfect Allows fans to watch all pole attempts live and uninterruped. Drivers would shine more as any mistake would prove costly, so the stakes are higher. And if Q2 is determined to setup the order in which drivers go out during the shootout for their attempts, it would elevate that session too Rather than bothering with Sprints and weird format, this is the one change that could elevate the weekend (you could even move Q1 and Q2 to Friday to get a competitive session every day, as F1 seems to desperately want)
I partly agree with Matt on the 1 lap Q3. The only way that would work is if there is only one car allowed on track at any certain time. Otherwise what's stopping rival teams ruining each others runs.
I think current day's format is a good balance between fairness and excitement. I do love the single lap qualifying though. I loved to see all individual laps in full in the old days. You could really spot the difference between the cars and the drivers.
I'll add that as a kid in the 80's and 90's F1 races were hard to find broadcast in the US, qualifying just flat out never showed up on TV. I don't think I saw a qualifier until I had access to high speed internet and alternative viewing sources in the early 2000's.
13:17 as a huge V8 Supercars fan, I totally agree. The only thing missing from F1 is top 10 1-lap shoot out. Soo many times the favourite has locked a wheel and gets dropped down to P6 or 7. But the greats are so consistent, even on a single lap. Go SVG!
I remember that Chris Amon got his glorious sounding Matra Gitanes Ligier to pole on a Saturday at Brands Hatch. On the Sunday morning they had another one hour 'warm up' session where Amon managed to 'buzz' his engine and bent a valve. Needless to say but in those days there wasn't time to swap the engine before the race (it needed the whole back end to be removed) and Amon lasted 6 laps before it blew!
I think part of the reason the 2005 1 lap format worked was the race fuel though, and that’s only a thing when you have refuelling. Nowadays where starting fuel isn’t a factor in quali performance. For the current format with a 1 lap Q3 I think that would make Q2 more interesting too - with 10 cars getting through, you just need to be safely faster than the cutoff. With a shootout getting Q2 fastest would be incentivised with a better slot (Just imagine the chaos of rain predicted for Q3 though, trying to qualify 9th or 10th to do the flying lap as early as possible 😅)
Watch how the Bathurst 1000 does it, larger qually sessions that culminate with the top 10 shootout on the Saturday. The top 10 shootout is one car on track at a time. Great spectacle, all cameras, telemetry and commentary trained on one car, and none of the nonsense with slow traffic which is becoming unfair and unsafe and is surely one major incident away from being changed.
I went to F1 Qualifying at Indianapolis every season between 2003 and 2007. 2005 was amusingly the best year of qualifying that I saw at the track. It was easy to follow, and it was the ultimate test of skill and calmness under pressure. Shame the race ended up the way it did. I don't mind the modern knockout qualifying, it just has a lot of hurry up and wait.
I was there 2004-2007! My dad and I accidentally went out into a prohibited area on the inside of turn 1. We thought it was a spectator mound, and we just walked right past security and they said nothing, so we were like, ok cool! I was big into photography then, so I got lots of good shots for about 20 minutes until finally they noticed us and politely asked us to leave 😂 We probably went unnoticed because I was wearing a bright yellow Ferrari shirt that was almost the exact color of the IMS security's vests
@@SaltySeattleCyclist Photographer/filmaker here, use these words responsably internet, but I can say security is easily trickable in public/mass gathering areas as long as you're wearing a yellow/orange reflective vest
@@juanin200 I didn't say I was wearing a vest like theirs, it just happened to be a t-shirt of a similar color, bought from one of the merch shops at the speedway, which is likely why security didn't notice us. No mal intent was ever used.
Reverse grid works in F2, because all of the cars are spec. There is not much pace difference between two cars. Bringing that to F1, will cause all sorts of carnage, if those cars that are significantly quicker, start from behind a much slower car.
I think one advantage of the modern format where drivers basically do 2 laps and have multiple sessions is that it allows drivers to really send it on their second lap. In a one lap format you have to be at least a little conservative because the extra grid slot or two gained by risk is rarely worth putting it in the wall. But when you have a banker lap, you have significantly less to lose and all the drivers your competing against do as well.
I think with some tweaking the elimination qualifying can be good! You could line them up at the starting grid in order of the WDC standings and then let them race for 2 laps. After 2 laps the last driver to cross the start/finish line last will be eliminated and goes back to the pits. Wpuld make for some bold moves in the back as it would just be all or nlthing if you're last at the moment and we'd have some racing.
Great video but you guys missed the Sprint race qualifying re-shuffle (and the upcoming extra qualifying variation of that) and the mandatory-tire detail (start race on tire used in Q3, and upcoming Hard-Medium-Soft Q1/2/3).
I got stoned AF last night, and actually thought about this. My ideal quali would be. 1Hr: Q1: same as current (separates the wheat from the chaff 🌾) Q2: 3 lap aggregate qualifying. All done on F1’s timing system with powerful AI hardware to crunch numbers on the same day. Gives great drivers in meh cars the chance to shine to other teams and fans. Q3: One-Shot Qualifying. Pirelli has a automatic system in place to randomly chose a C0-6 tyre for the teams (unless wet weather). Teams do not know what it is until they’re given the compound at the end of Q2 for qualifying to Q3.
One lap shootout with the order being Q2's results, in reverse, would be the perfect setup for shaking up the grid order. Teams would still want to set fast laps so they don't get knocked out of Q2 at the cost of having to go early in Q3.
One lap qualifying in Q1, Q2 and Q3 please, use the best times of each session to make the order for the next session. No more last minute cues playing chicken for who gets over the finish line before the end of the session.
The format isn't all that's changed either, teams used to have qualifying engines. Engines that were basically cranked up to the point they were on the edge of blowing themselves apart. And then there the were the tires, which would fall totally off after a couple hot laps. And as an American, single car shootouts are what I'm used to, it's the norm for Indy and NASCAR, so I loved seeing it in F1. Wouldn't mind seeing some variation of it again.
Sequential one lap shootout, but with all timings (including lap deltas on the steering wheel) removed until the driver crosses the line. It means no sandbagging and drivers having to turn up the wick. Reverse championship order and drivers qualify on the tyres they want to start the race on too, so can still shake up the grid
For 2006, at least, the cars started Q3 with the intended race start fuel. So you had the situation that the top 10 would drive several laps quickly to burn fuel, then late in the session they would stop for fresh tyres to set their qualifying times. In the 1 hour 12 laps format, the in and out laps were counted in that 12. So typically there would be 4 timed laps.
I would love to see this as a qualifying format. Q1, 20 - 30 minutes depending on the track. P16 - P20 set. Q2, 15 - 20 minutes depending on track. P11 - P15 set. Q3 - Top 10 shoot out. One lap per driver BUT the fastest in Q2 goes out first while 10th fastest goes out last. To give teams thinking about championship. Who ever is fastest gets 5 points in Q2, 3 for 2nd quickest and 1 for 3rd or yet 3-1 points. I was going to say prize money but teams don’t care about that. Just something to throw at the teams, do they think strategy by getting 8th, 9th or 10th in Q2 to get the best track conditions for Q3 or go for points.
Qualifying is 15-20 min that takes place within an hour window. The time starts when the first car starts a flying lap or when 15-20 min are left in the hour.
The only single thing I would change to the current Qualifying format, is change Q3 to a One-Lap Shootout in which P1 in Q2 goes first and P10 goes first. You will see good teams maybe taking it a bit easier and the midfield while pushing, might get a top runner out in Q2. You get a lot of unpredictability and in Q3 you might see someone getting a golden shot to actually challenge for something more than the car is usually capable of.
11:53 - it also seems like a somewhat dangerous format. I feel like 1-lap shootouts keep the "jeopardy" but remove some of the safety concerns with the 3 part shootout.
The problem I had with one lap qualifying was that there was only one car on the track at a time (and two of their three laps were warm-up and cool down), so you had a long session with only 20 laps that mattered. If you were at the track it meant you were looking at emptiness the vast majority of the time.
Finally, some confirmation that it's the Sprint Race and not Qualifying. My only gripe with the one lap idea (and neither of you talked about it) is that the teammate tow as a strategy option which adds excitement at some stages
RTE (Irish television) started showing live F1 races in 1995 so I remember Friday and Saturday qualifying. They usually showed highlights of Saturday with the occasional live one. But they just gave the results of the Friday session.
One lap shootout for q3 would be immense, with them going out in reverse order from q2. Only possible issue could be changeable conditions, but if the person who was first in q2 gets to decide if they go in reverse order or not for q3 that would still make for some interesting calls if rain is looming
This gave me an idea for a qualifying format: one lap shoot out. Places 11 to 15 get a second lap. Places 16 to 20 get a third lap. For the second and third laps, the slower team benefit from better track conditions and less traffic.
One-Lap shootout in Q3 would be good for everyone, as teams get 100% coverage for their sponsors on the lap. One way to decide the order that I think would be exciting, is whoever sets the fastest time in Q2, goes first down to 10th going last, potentially giving 10th place the best track conditions. Unless it rains obviously or if it's got no chance of raining, maybe the top teams gamble on a 9th or 10th best time to try and maximise Q3, only to potentially get knocked out by a midfield team grabbing a top 10 time in Q2.
I think they should do one-shot qualifying split into Q1 and Q2. Send the cars out in championship order for Q1, which would help the slower teams as the track rubbers in. The 10 slowest get eliminated and the 10 fastest move on to Q2. Then, send out the fastest in Q1 last for Q2. The top 10 are ordered based on Q2 times. That would be exciting!
F1 should combine the three-part qualifying with one-lap quali. Q1 in the championship order, Q2 in the reverse order of Q1 times, and Q3 in the reverse order of Q2 times.
2005 aggregate format (also common in eg winter sports) but run as two sessions on the Saturday. Second session is run based on slowest first (again like winter sports) so you have the potential of each next competitor beating the overall time thorughout the session
The only problem with a one lap shootout is that conditions would not be equal. At least with a time period to set a lap in you can theoretically go out whenever you want as there is no specific order. So I’d suggest the one lap shootout in Q3 not be one car after another taking a turn when conditions can change, but a 3-5 minute period where everyone is allowed one flying lap. Essentially Q3 is reduced to 3-5 minutes.
When they introduced the current format I seem to remember they did Q3 on race fuel. The 10 cars then went out and drove laps to burn the fuel level down, did their quick laps and they got the fuel burned off credited back ahead of the race start. Commentary I remember hated the fuel burn off phase.
1950-1995 format: Ricardo Rodriguez (a rookie Ferrari pilot then) died when in the firs GP Mexico he had the pole on friday and in the last ten minutes of the last session on saturday other pilot got the pole and trying to get the pole he crash (he was driving a borrow car because Ferrari didn't want to compete in that GP) In Imola in 1993 two pilots crashed and one died when trying to get the pole, in that race Senna died
Only change I would make to qualifying is really a change I would make to the race weekend. I would make them qualify & race on one tyre compound only, like in the 90/00s. Get rid of the two compounds per race. That way you get teams trying to use the softest compounds possible for qualifying so they jump up the grid but will likely need more put stops in the race. Some teams sacrificing qualifying putting a harder tyre on and not needing to pit as many times (or at all) in the race.
Yes, you had 12 laps to qualify from 96 to 2002, but out laps and in laps counted towards your total so that meant you had 4 attempts if you did the out lap-qualy lap-in lap. It's basically the same as today, only partitioned in 3 different mini-sessions. Top teams do 1 attempt in Q1, 1 or 2 in Q2 and 2 in Q3.
Add a q4! Similar to now, have a q1/2/3 and eliminate the 5 slowest each time, then q4 is a one lap shoot out in the reverse order of q3, (so 5th in q3 gets the last run). Would only need to shave off a minute or so from q1/2/3 to fit them in.
Unpopular opinion: The 2016 elimination format was a decent idea, just horribly executed by FOM and the teams. I remember the FOM had huge trouble with the timing system in this format, which essentially killed it. And teams apparently just did not want to bother with it so their careless disinterest took any fun. Seriously, as if they were not smart enough or informed early enough about the format to realize that they should send their drivers out with enough time to do an out-lap and a flying lap before they could get eliminated…its purpose was to urge top teams to do serious running early in the sessions too and put pressure on everybody, and it did that. And to watch all of the sessions, not just everybody’s final run in the last two minutes with perfect track evolution. Instead, you had this constantly so you had to do laps all the time. Btw basic Q1/2/3 and single lap are better ;)
Personally I think the format we have now only needs two slight changes: 1 - have the top 10 start on the tyres they set their Q2 laps on and anyone eliminated in Q1/Q2 free tyre choice, gives a few more strategy choices to those further down the order which spices up midfield battles 2 - one lap shootout Q3
Something I would like to see is let say a one lap qualifying to establish a basic order and then the top 5 goes for a 5 lap sprint race, same thing for the rest of the grip by little group to establish the real starting position. With that kind of qualifying in Australia we would've had maybe something like both merc at the front verstapen, Alonso second row, etc. I think it could make the starting grid less predictable and bring more excitement to qualifying sessions by having wheel to wheel action and being able to focus on one battle at a time
What about a one shot, 1 on 1 KO quali? 20-30 min. on Friday evening to find the best 16 and then from last 16 to the final on Saturday. To make it more unpredictable: Every driver got 2 sets of soft and 1 set of mediums for the whole Friday and Saturday qualifying-time. Only in the final the two remaining drivers were awarded a new set of red rubbers.
Really fun (but totally never would happen) would be Friday practice session to allow for set up work. Then Saturday morning another practice session to help improve track conditions before then having each driver do a three lap run in a spec car (supplied and set up by the hosting track). Each driver gets the same car and qualifying is based on the driver's ability on a neutral machine.
2 separate full hours would do a lot for avoiding bad weather. 2 qualifying sessions and no practice would be a HUGE optimization game for the teams. The decision of when and how much to push for raw qualifying pace as opposed to doing race sims and mechanical testing would be amazing from a competition perspective. It just happens almost entirely out of sight, so the fans at home don't get much insight.
The problem of 1 lap shootout is that to have an interesting TV experience you would have to have some driver trying to set-up a lap constantly. That means that when someone is on a flying lap, the other must be on an out lap, that gives the driver on an out-lap (or an in-lap for that matter) too much power to fuck up your opposition lap. That or, we would have to sit through an out-lap AND in-lap for every driver.
Maybe the last qualifying format could be more interesting if the elimination time could be longer, like every 5 minutes the 2 slowest are out and placed on the grid for Sunday, and times of the others are reset, until the 6 remaining drivers fight for the pole position.
Agree with change the Q3 to be One-Shot-Qualify but I want to add that Q3 Qualifying order base on Q2 Time, 10th go out first and fastest in Q2 come out last so we will also have the fight on the top group in Q2 too and not just fight to get out of elimination
Honestly one lap qualifying would work in Monaco and Monza where traffic has such an adverse effect on proceedings (both in different ways). Would also give officials lots more space to work to get rid of any post-crash malarkey in places where it could be tricky eg. Monaco. Changeable conditions would come into play, sometimes to team's benefit or detriment
Ive had an idea brewing in the old noggin for sprint Q3: let them battle for p1 with the race fuel amount for the sprint. You might se some trams play safe and end up a little more behind then usual while a williams if at a good track for them might say, ait, shall we throw the sink at it and underfuel a little so we can get a better gridposition.
The jeopardy in the early F1 qualifying format was the fact that drivers could die horribly at basically any point during the session
Excellently articulated point
Also, there was no parc ferme. So the teams could change setups at any point and improve.
I laughed out load but then caught myself because it’s very true.
And that the car might not finish because a piece gave up.
And "qualifying" actually meant qualifying; determining if you would even be allowed to start the race.
A few minor changes during the current qualifying format worth mentioning:
* Cars having a party mode got dropped.
* Starting the race on the tyre that you used during Q2 also got dropped
I actually kinda miss that Q2 tyre rule. It adds an element of strategy for race day. They also coupled it that rule where drivers in Q3 get free tyre choice if they don't set a time.
One lap shootouts at the end of Q3 would be great for TV also cause each lap can be shown in full not multiple flying laps at the same time
Would certainly eliminate the "miss the corner/hit the wall for the flag" antics at monaco
also make Q3 order random. Pick names out of a hat
Yes and the mini-sectors should be seen on TV
@@micodyerski1621 I think slowest-fastest would be the best so it builds up the crescendo if there’s a battle between the top few cars
Top 5 from q3
I think we all know that elimination qualifying back in 2016 was the best. The drama and suspense of drivers getting knocked out whilst sat in the pitlane is unmatched
@@RajR96 No 2016, go look up 2016 Australian Grand Prix qualifying. It was abysmal
Am I the only on that loved this format
@@HolanteTheMobileGamer no you are not!
@@ZoniKITB it’s dumb
We can’t knock them for trying and then cancelling it when it didn’t work. I think it’s better than them being stubborn and stuck in their ways and never trying to improve something.
It’s like their stubbornness to allow an 11th team
Haven't had a chance to fully watch the video yet, but I think the one lap shootout should be brought back for Monaco. Just that one race.
@paper plane cmon watching each driver individually around Monaco would be awesome. It’s the one track where you can really tell how close to the edge they are.
@@Formula1st yea for one run which if it’s wet it’s not gonna be full beans anyway
@@xxxtracionlljllgripxxx2469 how it is now you see less than one lap and it still rains
1 flying lap and we get to watch nearly all drivers qualy and they get a 60 min show out of it
And Monza to avoid that 2019 circus, Monaco and Monza
One-lap shootout quali will forever be my favorite. It really gave the drivers in lower teams the case to showcase their talents.
I agree. Not only that, but if it rained later on in the session, it could shake up the grid
Why?? Lower teams worse car so how can they showcase there talent
@@av1nash234 their*
@Av1nash23 , for two reasons. Firstly, the lower teams would receive a theoretically grippier track (with more rubber having been deposited on the racing line and more dust/debris cleared). Secondly, it gave spectators a chance to watch their entire lap. George Russell was arguably even more impressive at Williams than he is now at Mercedes. The ability to have watched his quali laps in their entirety would have helped people realize that the talent gap between drivers in F1 is usually much narrower than the machine gap between teams.
Yesss! This 🫶 I mean there's so many drivers laps that we NEVER see during quali 🫣 plus mistakes are punished, with current format, if you make a mistake, you usually always have the time to fix it
If I remember right, the 2 x 1 hour quali was 'killed off' by Senna, who sometimes didn't even bother to turn up for one of those days. While others did the whole Fru/Sat, he turned up for Sat, did a few laps and pocketed P1. 😊
There were two changes which kinda came along at the same time. Pre 95, drivers had a limited number of qualifying tyres, which limited the number of laps they could do. But tyres which would be useless after a single lap was "a bit silly" - so they switched to race tyres and limited the drivers to 12 laps . The second unconnected change was to get rid of the Friday session. Usually the track would be quicker on the Saturday - but sometimes it rained on the Sat which would render it a bit of an anticlimax.
I think you should have split out the different nuances of the current format. When refueling was a thing and starting the race on your qualifying fuel load was peak. A slower car could go for pole and it brought in more strategy to the race.
I absolutely loved that One-Lap-Shootout.
Maybe, because it was that time I really got into F1 and I didn't know the former formats. But I still think, this was better, than today's format, because it really shows, who's fast on point, when it is important...
You only get one shot to not miss your chance to blow...
Having been an F1 fan since the 90s and watching it now just as intently as I did then, I have to say qualifying today is easily the best. It’s so good I actually don’t remember the other formats in the early 2000s.
The 90s… well I was a teen age kid so it’s understandable why I don’t remember it, I should remember something from when I was finishing college and doing engineering so I could potentially go and be an F1 engineer (didn’t happen I went into business after school)
One thing I would like to see, similar to Indycar is a special timing line before pit entry for qualifying so you don’t have slow cars on a cool down lap getting in the way. Once they complete there lap they can entry the pits straight away.
Excellent idea. F1 cars waste tons of time and clutter the track with their in-laps.
@@T_Mo271 I first saw back when Indycar were on the coast and they setting lap times and then diving straight into the pits. I didn’t realise what was happening for a while. Now following it more it is a great idea, as you also can get more laps in in qualifying as you don’t have the long cooldown lap.
In the Australian Supercars (touring cars) series, we have about 1/3 of the races each year where we run a ~20 minute all-in qualifying session that sets the grid from 11-whatever, and then a real Top-10 Shootout. Each of the top 10 drivers from qual gets 1 lap. They go out in reverse order from the qual session (so 10th hits the track 1st, down to 1st hitting the track last).
100% on team Matt here, the Jeopardy is palpable when it's only a single lap, but there's also one thing you're possibly understimating. It's just one driver against the track. No traffic, no missing the gap you wanted to be in, no getting hurried along on your out-lap by someone else. It's just one driver, one car, versus the track. If you watch some of the shootout laps around Mt Panorama over the years, there's some of the best driving I've ever seen. Greg Murphy set the 'Lap of the Gods' in 2003, a record which stood for 18 years, and will probably be hailed forever as one of the best laps of any track by any driver in any car.
I like the idea of of a Q3 one lap shootout. Combines the best qualifying formats, IMO, into one. My favorite qualifying format was the one lap shootout.
The initial 2005 season format wasn't just the two laps added together. The Saturday session was traditional qual fuel level running, then the Sunday session was run with the fuel levels at whatever the team intended to start the race with to complete their first stint. Thus a driver especially good at bonafide qualifying would be rewarded with a buffer between them and their principal rivals. By having outdone them a disproportionate amount relative to the strength of the cars, they now had some bonus time in the pocket to sneak additional race fuel into the Sunday session. Kimi and Jarno got the most out of this and both tended to run quite long before their first stop on the strength of their low fuel laps from Saturday. This was the source of a lot of Kimi's miraculous comeback drives after his scheduled Merc engine penalties and served to forge the Trulli Train legend.
Don't forget pre-qualifying which used to be a thing when there were too many cars. The slowest teams had a Friday pre-qualifying session where the fastest drivers among them would be eligible to join Saturday's main qualifying, and the slowest drivers would be eliminated from the rest of the weekend.
I do think that the Q1, Q2 then Q3 format is the best we've had. A single lap shootout Q3 would be awesome, maybe with the order being dictated by the results of Q2 in reverse, meaning that where you finish in Q2 impacts how good a chance you have I'm your final lap. Only issue I see would be changing weather conditions, you might get screwed out of a pole position because of the weather, that'd be painful for the drivers but would also cause a spectacle for the viewers if the usual top 3 had poor laps because they couldn't set a quick time.
As much as I love single lap qualy from the early 2000s and would love to see it come back I have to admit the current format is almost too good to replace now.
My Rating of your formats to rank/explain stuff. The old system from a platform which we can't speak the name with an appr. 5 minutes video explaining certain aspect of F1: 10/10 - It was to the point, had some clever humour and memes all around. I watched every second of it. It was great . . . the best you could find on UA-cam. The race best tweets - from a platform which we can't speak the name: 9/10. It had me in stitches most of the time. Only the race roundup at the I would skip.
Now the NEW race/tweet review.: 8/10. Not bad, great insight, tweets again, but I'm not sure why, I'm can miss an episode and be ok with it.
The NEW ranking stuff. (drivers, livery, qualy format etc.) 6/10. I noticed I am fast forwarding to the results. OMG, I'm so sorry. I know, I shouldn't.
Please go back to do some short 5 minutes segments that we come to really love from you guys. I really miss that. They were entertaining, educating and addicting.
Still, you're great and I i know you have something up your sleeve we haven't seen yet. Cheers!
Omg, I totally forgot this Elimination format. 😂
This is like the definition of "It's a good idea, if you don' t have (or consider) any of the information and circumstances, you have"
I really think, this COULD work properly, but not in our era. This could have worked up until the 90s, maybe in the 2000's, but not today.
Plus, as mentioned, you've got a properly working, good format already in usage... Never change a running system, except you've tested it a thousand times and know for sure, that the new system is better.
I'd probably find it boring in the long run, but I liked it when one could see each lap for each driver. Nowadays if let's say Sargeant does a perfect monstrous lap nobody even notices. I'd love a format that can give you the excitement but also sometimes gets more technical and lets you see what the drivers are actually doing to push to the limit.
What about a single lap qualifying but with the qualifying format we have today? Every driver gets to do a lap in Q1, the bottom 10 are eliminated, then the top 10 get a single lap in Q2
you can't really have single lap quali as it would heavily benefit the last driver on circuit more often than not as the track rubbers in. HOWEVER they could mitigate this by letting drivers out in reverse championship order. still gives other drivers a competitive edge though, so it wouldn't be the best sporting move in the world.
@@OK-fi4yq That's the point though, it gives incentive for drivers to do as well as possible in Q1.
@@OK-fi4yq Then have them start in reverse order to the WC. Meaning Verstappen runs the first lap in the new season in Q3, Q2 and Q1 if he makes the later sessions. This would give "reverse grid" vibes where it give the track evolution edge to the drivers further in the back of the grid, but then again with quali taking this long the weather is a concern.
@@ReNeyer that’s what I said boss
@@ReNeyer also means people will turn over the channel after the first few drivers have had their laps.
Q3 becomes Top 10 Shootout, 1 warm up lap, 1 timed lap, each driver has the track to themselves. it works so well in V8 Supercars for the Bathurst 1000. As one driver comes starts their timed lap, the next driver will start their outlap, then as the first driver finishes the timed lap the next driver starts their warm up lap where commentary can talk about the driver since the last race, then after the warm up the second driver starts their timed lap and the next driver starts their outlap again. condenses the action into maybe 45mins of a Q3 Shootout. drivers on warm up have to maintain a delta to keep the action going. hire me liberty media. thank me later.
1 hour session was my favourite, even though they used to sit in the garage for ages, it was still somehow the most satisfying to me.
I completely hate the idea of one shot qualifying. For me one of the best parts of qualifying is the first flying laps being set and then watching those 2 or 3 best drivers dig even deeper and push their car to the literal limits of the track in order to find more time in hopes of securing or stealing pole
My Quali format ideas:
Q1: 8 cars knock out
Q2: 7 cars knock out
Q3: 5 cars doing one lap shoot out for pole
the problem with today's qualifying is top teams never push for the first two sessions, always going for limited setups or used tyres. i feel like the idea of making them use hards in q3 then medium in q2 and then soft in q1 is a great solution to this
I have an idea that would be kind of a middle ground between one lap quali and the current system: the current system but each driver can only go out once each session. There could be different strategies, either risk it and only fuel for one lap in order to get a lap with fresh tyres and minimum fuel load, or prepare for something going wrong by fueling enough for a couple of flying laps and sacrificing a bit of performance.
What if someone crashes, it would be detrimental to others who are out on the track at the time. They could be seeing a red flag, or get puncture from debris etc.
@@rahdirigs well, I guess red flag could introduce an exception to the rule
The second 2005 qualifying gave us japan 2005 single handedly one of the best races of the sport
You’ll love the qualifying format of the V8 Supercars then! 3 part qualifying with the Top 10 Shootout being a one lap assault for pole position with each driver getting the track to themselves.
I’d rather the qualifying vary, use the qualifying format that best fits the circuit. One shot for some circuits, current format for some, two or three shot qualifying, and whatever else.
I actually found the 2016 qualifying format quite entertaining but I can imagine it would begin to piss us all off if it carried on every weekend
What about two day Qual where Friday all cars go out one at a time do two laps and the top 10 move on to Sat where again one at a time the cars go out for two laps and set the order. You could see everyone's laps they would have a clear track for their Qual (my personal biggest issue, ruined laps) and you still have a knock out between Fri and Sat.
what about this: 3 lap Q1, 2 lap Q2, 1 lap Q3 shootout. Weaker teams get more chances at Q1 but top grid has to get it right first time in Q3
Wow that idea of 1 lap shootout in q3 never crossed my mind and now that you guys mentioned it I needed so badly. If they ever change Qualy again I hope they do that
quali should be:
q1 5 slowest cars eliminated 15mins
q2 next 5 slowest cars eliminated 15mins
q3 1 lap shootout order based on reverse top 10 of q2.
hence top 10 pushing hard in q2. I think this will generate exciting quali incoming rain may make drivers aim for 10th in q2 to try and get lap in q3 early. just a thought.
I agree with Matt. The qualifying format as it is nowdays is nearly perfect... But changing Q3 for a 1 lap shootout would be perfect
Allows fans to watch all pole attempts live and uninterruped. Drivers would shine more as any mistake would prove costly, so the stakes are higher. And if Q2 is determined to setup the order in which drivers go out during the shootout for their attempts, it would elevate that session too
Rather than bothering with Sprints and weird format, this is the one change that could elevate the weekend (you could even move Q1 and Q2 to Friday to get a competitive session every day, as F1 seems to desperately want)
I partly agree with Matt on the 1 lap Q3. The only way that would work is if there is only one car allowed on track at any certain time. Otherwise what's stopping rival teams ruining each others runs.
I think current day's format is a good balance between fairness and excitement. I do love the single lap qualifying though. I loved to see all individual laps in full in the old days. You could really spot the difference between the cars and the drivers.
The potential for a grid shakeup when qualifying is a one lap shootout is just pure entertainment.
I'll add that as a kid in the 80's and 90's F1 races were hard to find broadcast in the US, qualifying just flat out never showed up on TV. I don't think I saw a qualifier until I had access to high speed internet and alternative viewing sources in the early 2000's.
Genuinely astounded that the current format has been around since 2006. Been a fan since 98 but could have sworn this was a 2010s thing
13:17 as a huge V8 Supercars fan, I totally agree. The only thing missing from F1 is top 10 1-lap shoot out. Soo many times the favourite has locked a wheel and gets dropped down to P6 or 7. But the greats are so consistent, even on a single lap. Go SVG!
I remember that Chris Amon got his glorious sounding Matra Gitanes Ligier to pole on a Saturday at Brands Hatch. On the Sunday morning they had another one hour 'warm up' session where Amon managed to 'buzz' his engine and bent a valve. Needless to say but in those days there wasn't time to swap the engine before the race (it needed the whole back end to be removed) and Amon lasted 6 laps before it blew!
I think part of the reason the 2005 1 lap format worked was the race fuel though, and that’s only a thing when you have refuelling. Nowadays where starting fuel isn’t a factor in quali performance.
For the current format with a 1 lap Q3 I think that would make Q2 more interesting too - with 10 cars getting through, you just need to be safely faster than the cutoff. With a shootout getting Q2 fastest would be incentivised with a better slot (Just imagine the chaos of rain predicted for Q3 though, trying to qualify 9th or 10th to do the flying lap as early as possible 😅)
Watch how the Bathurst 1000 does it, larger qually sessions that culminate with the top 10 shootout on the Saturday. The top 10 shootout is one car on track at a time. Great spectacle, all cameras, telemetry and commentary trained on one car, and none of the nonsense with slow traffic which is becoming unfair and unsafe and is surely one major incident away from being changed.
I went to F1 Qualifying at Indianapolis every season between 2003 and 2007. 2005 was amusingly the best year of qualifying that I saw at the track. It was easy to follow, and it was the ultimate test of skill and calmness under pressure. Shame the race ended up the way it did. I don't mind the modern knockout qualifying, it just has a lot of hurry up and wait.
I was there 2004-2007! My dad and I accidentally went out into a prohibited area on the inside of turn 1. We thought it was a spectator mound, and we just walked right past security and they said nothing, so we were like, ok cool! I was big into photography then, so I got lots of good shots for about 20 minutes until finally they noticed us and politely asked us to leave 😂 We probably went unnoticed because I was wearing a bright yellow Ferrari shirt that was almost the exact color of the IMS security's vests
I do remember 2005 Indy qualifying being very entertaining, too! Little did we know at the time what was happening behind the scenes though 😵💫
@@SaltySeattleCyclist Photographer/filmaker here, use these words responsably internet, but I can say security is easily trickable in public/mass gathering areas as long as you're wearing a yellow/orange reflective vest
@@juanin200 I didn't say I was wearing a vest like theirs, it just happened to be a t-shirt of a similar color, bought from one of the merch shops at the speedway, which is likely why security didn't notice us. No mal intent was ever used.
@@SaltySeattleCyclist I know, I was just saying that in my experience security is often easy to trick
Would love for you both to review unseen concepts in F1. Eg. Reverse Grid Sprints like F2
Reverse grid works in F2, because all of the cars are spec. There is not much pace difference between two cars. Bringing that to F1, will cause all sorts of carnage, if those cars that are significantly quicker, start from behind a much slower car.
I think one advantage of the modern format where drivers basically do 2 laps and have multiple sessions is that it allows drivers to really send it on their second lap. In a one lap format you have to be at least a little conservative because the extra grid slot or two gained by risk is rarely worth putting it in the wall. But when you have a banker lap, you have significantly less to lose and all the drivers your competing against do as well.
I think with some tweaking the elimination qualifying can be good!
You could line them up at the starting grid in order of the WDC standings and then let them race for 2 laps. After 2 laps the last driver to cross the start/finish line last will be eliminated and goes back to the pits. Wpuld make for some bold moves in the back as it would just be all or nlthing if you're last at the moment and we'd have some racing.
Great video but you guys missed the Sprint race qualifying re-shuffle (and the upcoming extra qualifying variation of that) and the mandatory-tire detail (start race on tire used in Q3, and upcoming Hard-Medium-Soft Q1/2/3).
One shot qualifying was an absolutely godly format and will always be the one I want to see return
I got stoned AF last night, and actually thought about this.
My ideal quali would be.
1Hr:
Q1: same as current (separates the wheat from the chaff 🌾)
Q2: 3 lap aggregate qualifying. All done on F1’s timing system with powerful AI hardware to crunch numbers on the same day. Gives great drivers in meh cars the chance to shine to other teams and fans.
Q3: One-Shot Qualifying. Pirelli has a automatic system in place to randomly chose a C0-6 tyre for the teams (unless wet weather). Teams do not know what it is until they’re given the compound at the end of Q2 for qualifying to Q3.
One lap shootout with the order being Q2's results, in reverse, would be the perfect setup for shaking up the grid order. Teams would still want to set fast laps so they don't get knocked out of Q2 at the cost of having to go early in Q3.
One lap qualifying in Q1, Q2 and Q3 please, use the best times of each session to make the order for the next session. No more last minute cues playing chicken for who gets over the finish line before the end of the session.
I like the 1 hour Friday and Saturday.. it's so much more appealing to me rather than the drawn out stuff that happenes today
The format isn't all that's changed either, teams used to have qualifying engines. Engines that were basically cranked up to the point they were on the edge of blowing themselves apart. And then there the were the tires, which would fall totally off after a couple hot laps. And as an American, single car shootouts are what I'm used to, it's the norm for Indy and NASCAR, so I loved seeing it in F1. Wouldn't mind seeing some variation of it again.
V8 Supercars here in Aus do it quite well. One session to set a top 10, the a one lap shootout going 10th to 1st to determine pole
Saturday qualifying was televised in open-air TV in Brazil in the 80s and early 90s. It was fine!
Sequential one lap shootout, but with all timings (including lap deltas on the steering wheel) removed until the driver crosses the line.
It means no sandbagging and drivers having to turn up the wick.
Reverse championship order and drivers qualify on the tyres they want to start the race on too, so can still shake up the grid
For 2006, at least, the cars started Q3 with the intended race start fuel. So you had the situation that the top 10 would drive several laps quickly to burn fuel, then late in the session they would stop for fresh tyres to set their qualifying times.
In the 1 hour 12 laps format, the in and out laps were counted in that 12. So typically there would be 4 timed laps.
I would love to see this as a qualifying format.
Q1, 20 - 30 minutes depending on the track. P16 - P20 set.
Q2, 15 - 20 minutes depending on track. P11 - P15 set.
Q3 - Top 10 shoot out. One lap per driver BUT the fastest in Q2 goes out first while 10th fastest goes out last.
To give teams thinking about championship. Who ever is fastest gets 5 points in Q2, 3 for 2nd quickest and 1 for 3rd or yet 3-1 points. I was going to say prize money but teams don’t care about that. Just something to throw at the teams, do they think strategy by getting 8th, 9th or 10th in Q2 to get the best track conditions for Q3 or go for points.
Qualifying is 15-20 min that takes place within an hour window. The time starts when the first car starts a flying lap or when 15-20 min are left in the hour.
The only single thing I would change to the current Qualifying format, is change Q3 to a One-Lap Shootout in which P1 in Q2 goes first and P10 goes first.
You will see good teams maybe taking it a bit easier and the midfield while pushing, might get a top runner out in Q2. You get a lot of unpredictability and in Q3 you might see someone getting a golden shot to actually challenge for something more than the car is usually capable of.
11:53 - it also seems like a somewhat dangerous format. I feel like 1-lap shootouts keep the "jeopardy" but remove some of the safety concerns with the 3 part shootout.
The problem I had with one lap qualifying was that there was only one car on the track at a time (and two of their three laps were warm-up and cool down), so you had a long session with only 20 laps that mattered. If you were at the track it meant you were looking at emptiness the vast majority of the time.
But on TV is perfect
i think thats amazing because you actually get to see every driver's lap, which is also good for smaller teams because they actually get some tv time
Finally, some confirmation that it's the Sprint Race and not Qualifying.
My only gripe with the one lap idea (and neither of you talked about it) is that the teammate tow as a strategy option which adds excitement at some stages
Finally a very informative video that encompasses past and present!! Good vid 👏
RTE (Irish television) started showing live F1 races in 1995 so I remember Friday and Saturday qualifying. They usually showed highlights of Saturday with the occasional live one. But they just gave the results of the Friday session.
One lap shootout for q3 would be immense, with them going out in reverse order from q2. Only possible issue could be changeable conditions, but if the person who was first in q2 gets to decide if they go in reverse order or not for q3 that would still make for some interesting calls if rain is looming
This gave me an idea for a qualifying format: one lap shoot out. Places 11 to 15 get a second lap. Places 16 to 20 get a third lap. For the second and third laps, the slower team benefit from better track conditions and less traffic.
One-Lap shootout in Q3 would be good for everyone, as teams get 100% coverage for their sponsors on the lap.
One way to decide the order that I think would be exciting, is whoever sets the fastest time in Q2, goes first down to 10th going last, potentially giving 10th place the best track conditions.
Unless it rains obviously or if it's got no chance of raining, maybe the top teams gamble on a 9th or 10th best time to try and maximise Q3, only to potentially get knocked out by a midfield team grabbing a top 10 time in Q2.
I think they should do one-shot qualifying split into Q1 and Q2. Send the cars out in championship order for Q1, which would help the slower teams as the track rubbers in. The 10 slowest get eliminated and the 10 fastest move on to Q2. Then, send out the fastest in Q1 last for Q2. The top 10 are ordered based on Q2 times. That would be exciting!
F1 should combine the three-part qualifying with one-lap quali. Q1 in the championship order, Q2 in the reverse order of Q1 times, and Q3 in the reverse order of Q2 times.
2005 aggregate format (also common in eg winter sports) but run as two sessions on the Saturday. Second session is run based on slowest first (again like winter sports) so you have the potential of each next competitor beating the overall time thorughout the session
The only problem with a one lap shootout is that conditions would not be equal. At least with a time period to set a lap in you can theoretically go out whenever you want as there is no specific order. So I’d suggest the one lap shootout in Q3 not be one car after another taking a turn when conditions can change, but a 3-5 minute period where everyone is allowed one flying lap. Essentially Q3 is reduced to 3-5 minutes.
When they introduced the current format I seem to remember they did Q3 on race fuel. The 10 cars then went out and drove laps to burn the fuel level down, did their quick laps and they got the fuel burned off credited back ahead of the race start. Commentary I remember hated the fuel burn off phase.
1950-1995 format: Ricardo Rodriguez (a rookie Ferrari pilot then) died when in the firs GP Mexico he had the pole on friday and in the last ten minutes of the last session on saturday other pilot got the pole and trying to get the pole he crash (he was driving a borrow car because Ferrari didn't want to compete in that GP)
In Imola in 1993 two pilots crashed and one died when trying to get the pole, in that race Senna died
Only change I would make to qualifying is really a change I would make to the race weekend. I would make them qualify & race on one tyre compound only, like in the 90/00s. Get rid of the two compounds per race. That way you get teams trying to use the softest compounds possible for qualifying so they jump up the grid but will likely need more put stops in the race. Some teams sacrificing qualifying putting a harder tyre on and not needing to pit as many times (or at all) in the race.
Yes, you had 12 laps to qualify from 96 to 2002, but out laps and in laps counted towards your total so that meant you had 4 attempts if you did the out lap-qualy lap-in lap. It's basically the same as today, only partitioned in 3 different mini-sessions. Top teams do 1 attempt in Q1, 1 or 2 in Q2 and 2 in Q3.
Add a q4! Similar to now, have a q1/2/3 and eliminate the 5 slowest each time, then q4 is a one lap shoot out in the reverse order of q3, (so 5th in q3 gets the last run). Would only need to shave off a minute or so from q1/2/3 to fit them in.
Unpopular opinion:
The 2016 elimination format was a decent idea, just horribly executed by FOM and the teams.
I remember the FOM had huge trouble with the timing system in this format, which essentially killed it. And teams apparently just did not want to bother with it so their careless disinterest took any fun. Seriously, as if they were not smart enough or informed early enough about the format to realize that they should send their drivers out with enough time to do an out-lap and a flying lap before they could get eliminated…its purpose was to urge top teams to do serious running early in the sessions too and put pressure on everybody, and it did that. And to watch all of the sessions, not just everybody’s final run in the last two minutes with perfect track evolution. Instead, you had this constantly so you had to do laps all the time.
Btw basic Q1/2/3 and single lap are better ;)
There's the addition that previously you would start the race on Q2's fastest lap tyre. That led to interesting strategies, I reckon.
I feel like elimination qualifying had some potential. But was completely misplaced
Personally I think the format we have now only needs two slight changes:
1 - have the top 10 start on the tyres they set their Q2 laps on and anyone eliminated in Q1/Q2 free tyre choice, gives a few more strategy choices to those further down the order which spices up midfield battles
2 - one lap shootout Q3
Something I would like to see is let say a one lap qualifying to establish a basic order and then the top 5 goes for a 5 lap sprint race, same thing for the rest of the grip by little group to establish the real starting position. With that kind of qualifying in Australia we would've had maybe something like both merc at the front verstapen, Alonso second row, etc. I think it could make the starting grid less predictable and bring more excitement to qualifying sessions by having wheel to wheel action and being able to focus on one battle at a time
What about a one shot, 1 on 1 KO quali?
20-30 min. on Friday evening to find the best 16 and then from last 16 to the final on Saturday. To make it more unpredictable: Every driver got 2 sets of soft and 1 set of mediums for the whole Friday and Saturday qualifying-time. Only in the final the two remaining drivers were awarded a new set of red rubbers.
Really fun (but totally never would happen) would be Friday practice session to allow for set up work. Then Saturday morning another practice session to help improve track conditions before then having each driver do a three lap run in a spec car (supplied and set up by the hosting track). Each driver gets the same car and qualifying is based on the driver's ability on a neutral machine.
2 separate full hours would do a lot for avoiding bad weather. 2 qualifying sessions and no practice would be a HUGE optimization game for the teams. The decision of when and how much to push for raw qualifying pace as opposed to doing race sims and mechanical testing would be amazing from a competition perspective. It just happens almost entirely out of sight, so the fans at home don't get much insight.
The problem of 1 lap shootout is that to have an interesting TV experience you would have to have some driver trying to set-up a lap constantly. That means that when someone is on a flying lap, the other must be on an out lap, that gives the driver on an out-lap (or an in-lap for that matter) too much power to fuck up your opposition lap. That or, we would have to sit through an out-lap AND in-lap for every driver.
2:36 12 laps were actually 4 attempts. One out lap, one qualifying lap and one in lap for each attempt so not a lot really.
Watching this after Singapore, did Tommy have a premonition about Max qualifying ^^ or just put a curse on him 😂
Maybe the last qualifying format could be more interesting if the elimination time could be longer, like every 5 minutes the 2 slowest are out and placed on the grid for Sunday, and times of the others are reset, until the 6 remaining drivers fight for the pole position.
Agree with change the Q3 to be One-Shot-Qualify but I want to add that Q3 Qualifying order base on Q2 Time, 10th go out first and fastest in Q2 come out last so we will also have the fight on the top group in Q2 too and not just fight to get out of elimination
Honestly one lap qualifying would work in Monaco and Monza where traffic has such an adverse effect on proceedings (both in different ways). Would also give officials lots more space to work to get rid of any post-crash malarkey in places where it could be tricky eg. Monaco. Changeable conditions would come into play, sometimes to team's benefit or detriment
tommy speaks f1 language and matt translates it. legends.
Ive had an idea brewing in the old noggin for sprint Q3: let them battle for p1 with the race fuel amount for the sprint. You might se some trams play safe and end up a little more behind then usual while a williams if at a good track for them might say, ait, shall we throw the sink at it and underfuel a little so we can get a better gridposition.
Walking up at 6 in the morning to find out who's on pole..... Meanwhile I wake up at 6 for the majority of the races on the calendar lol
Those 12 laps were in fact 4 fast laps in total, each try consisted in the outlap, qualifying lap and inlap.
17:51 Aahh, the look Frank's giving Tommy 🥰
He's either done something he shouldn't have, or he wants something 🙂.
I remember elimination qualifying, pole position was decided 5 mins before the end of the session