F1 drops new qualifying format

All together now – We told you so!

Just a few short weeks ago, Formula One announced that it would be changing the format of qualifying.

Immediately the sport placed itself once again into a pointless and avoidable negativity spiral.

None of the fans wanted to see the change and despite unanimously agreeing it, it seemed none of the drivers or teams wanted it either.

The popular three main sessions of qualifying would remain, but a timed elimination process was added.

This would see action begin at the start of sessions, whilst also adding what Formula One hoped would be a bit of chaos and unpredictability to the grid in order to make the races more interesting.

However it failed.

Whilst it created chaos, none of it was on track. Logistically with a 90 second elimination clock, teams didn’t have enough time to get their cars back out to try and avoid elimination. During Q1 this left cars setting fast times that wouldn’t count or just sitting in the garage watching a stop watch.

As the session went on there was less and less on track action, until the farcical scenes of Q3, which was suppose to be a pole-position shoot-out, saw no action for the final 5 minutes and all the drivers out of their cars before the session had even ended.

Despite a front-row lock out for Mercedes, team boss Toto Wolff branded it ‘rubbish’.

His fellow team bosses agreed and on Sunday morning they announced their intention to scrap it.

‘We made a mistake and will go back [to the old rules] for the next race,’ Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner Sky Sports.

‘We are usually a pretty dysfunctional group but there was absolute unanimity.

‘We’re tickling with the wrong areas. It’s like trying to introduce a second ball on the pitch in football. The problems aren’t in the format of qualifying or what a grand prix is.

The dumping of the new qualifying format will have to be officially ratified by the F1 Commission and World Motor Sport Council, but that’s unlikely to cause any problems meaning the old and liked system will return for the Bahrain Grand Prix on April 2nd.