Ecclestone announces: “New qualifying format starting from the Spanish GP”

In an interview with the British newspaper Independent, Bernie Ecclestone declared that the new qualifying format will be tested for the first time at the Spanish Grand Prix and not in Australia, home of the first world championship event of the 2016 season. At the basis of the postponement there are problems related to the timing system, managed directly by the FOM.

The new qualifying system, approved this week by the Strategy Group and the F1 Commission, awaiting ratification by the World Council, always includes a session divided into three heats. In Q1, at the stroke of 7', the driver with the highest time is eliminated, followed every minute and a half by six other colleagues. The 2 best classified will enter Q15, of which the last seven will be cut off (the first of which at minute number 6, followed every 90 seconds by the others). The remaining eight participate in the last heat. After 5 minutes, the slowest leaves the group as do five others, always every 90 seconds. Therefore, the two fastest remain on the track and are fighting for pole.

"The new qualifications will not see the light of day immediately – reported the F1 boss-. We would have liked to introduce this innovation at the beginning of the season, but the timing management software will not be ready in those days and therefore the new format will most likely start from Spain, while in Melbourne we will witness the usual qualifying session".

"Honestly it's not really what I wanted – continued Ecclestone -. I'm doing everything I can to shuffle the starting grid, so that the fastest doesn't start from pole. To make the races more exciting, I would have changed the starting order or imposed a time penalty, perhaps also giving the drivers some points for qualifying".

Piero Ladisa

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