Chinese Grand Prix: F1 to Revert to 2015 Qualifying Format

Chris · Apr 8, 2016

Formula One will return to the 2015 format of qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix after the 11 teams competing in this years World Championship sent a unanimous letter to the FIA demanding the change to the 2015 format and that all other formats proposed would be rejected.

The rapid fire elimination format was rammed through the various decision making committees just two weeks before the start of the Australian Grand Prix. The teams knew full well that such a system would be a total mess, yet the FIA and FOM continued to press on. Unsurprisingly, it turned out to be a complete flop as fewer cars were present on track than before and more time was spent looking at the count down timer rather than the cars themselves.

The news was broken in a statement from the FIA,

"At the unanimous request of the teams in a letter received today, Jean Todt, president of the FIA, and Bernie Ecclestone, commercial rights holder representative, accepted, in the interests of the championship, to submit a proposal to the F1 Commission and World Motor Sport Council to revert to the qualifying format in force in 2015. This proposal, if approved by the F1 governing bodies, will take effect as from the Chinese Grand Prix and will apply for the rest of the season."

However, don't assume that we are out of the woods completely on this one as Todt and Ecclestone will make an "assessment of the format of the weekend for 2017." Whether this means we will see any meaningful change remains to be seen as the teams can again unanimously vote against whatever proposals the head honchos put forward, but we could be in for another fiasco of attempts to shake things up again for the sake of the "show"... You know, because F1 isn't a sport or anything like that.

The Chinese Grand Prix will kick off in a little over a weeks time on the weekend of the 15th of April. Stick and stay with RaceDepartment.com for all the breaking news and analysis.

Deleted member 130869 · Apr 8, 2016

YAY! After reading earlier news regarding Bernie's arrogant and hypocritical stance against the drivers, I was worried. But I suppose now we will get to see the upper middle of the pack teams bring the heat for those 4-6 slots.

Torcano · Apr 8, 2016

InsaneOzzie · Apr 8, 2016

YAY!!!!
Great to see the teams exercising their power, now we can get back to some serious F1 racing.

Ramon van Rijn · Apr 8, 2016

Booo the 2015 format is boring. Won't be watching qualify anymore. Same i did not over the last two years.

New qual was not perfect, it lacked drives due to the tyre limit but for me it was more challenging than the old format where the fastest time are in Q2 and not Q3.

Anyway, more free Saturdays for me

PsyaNyde · Apr 8, 2016

Bernie Ecclestone and Jean Todt need to crawl off and disappear back under whichever slimy rocks they first appeared from

Tim.E · Apr 8, 2016

Finally they understood that they just failed massively on this. Oh but no worries, it only took them a month or so to realise they faked up. Well thank you Bernie!

jonelsorel · Apr 8, 2016

Bernie, please leave F1! Your retirement is long overdue! How can you NOT consult the teams (or logic, for that matter) when changing a quali format in order to get an idea of what those changes do? Is that's what your level of professionalism amounts to these days - dictatorship, go buy an island and become tribe chief. Thinking how to make more money 100% of the time obviously fcuks up everything else from a point on. Attitude and nerve are among the first affected (see stance after drivers' letter a few weeks back).

And here's another reason why you should leave: SIDING. For having installed a pyramid even in sport, where the playing field should be even. Pathetic. And people wonder why competitivity suffers.

1.

“So it really wouldn’t make any difference to us who gets that money. No difference at all.

“If it’s shared equally it’s alright. If it’s shared in a way like Ferrari benefit a bit because they’ve been racing a lot longer than anybody else. And in the end, Ferrari is Formula 1, so they should be [paid more].

http://planetf1.com/news/eccesltone-ferrari-deserve-to-be-paid-more/

Top teams ALREADY HAVE top funds. Shouldn't the awards scheme be reversed on its head to level the field? For the sport?

2.

http://planetf1.com/news/ferrari-cleared-of-using-coded-pitboard-message/

Should we recall what the Schumacher - Ferrari era did to the sport? Can we all look at that objectively?

Nick Gregory · Apr 8, 2016

About bloody time! Now I can be excited for qualifying again.

Reaper · Apr 8, 2016

jonelsorel said:
Bernie, please leave F1! Your retirement is long overdue! How can you NOT consult the teams (or logic, for that matter) when changing a quali format in order to get an idea of what those changes do? Is that's what your level of professionalism amounts to these days - dictatorship, go buy an island and become tribe chief. Thinking how to make more money 100% of the time obviously fcuks up everything else from a point on. Attitude and nerve are among the first affected (see stance after drivers' letter a few weeks back).

And here's another reason why you should leave: SIDING. For having installed a pyramid even in sport, where the playing field should be even. Pathetic. And people wonder why competitivity suffers.

1.

“So it really wouldn’t make any difference to us who gets that money. No difference at all.

“If it’s shared equally it’s alright. If it’s shared in a way like Ferrari benefit a bit because they’ve been racing a lot longer than anybody else. And in the end, Ferrari is Formula 1, so they should be [paid more].

http://planetf1.com/news/eccesltone-ferrari-deserve-to-be-paid-more/

Top teams ALREADY HAVE top funds. Shouldn't the awards scheme be reversed on its head to level the field? For the sport?

2.

http://planetf1.com/news/ferrari-cleared-of-using-coded-pitboard-message/

Should we recall what the Schumacher - Ferrari era did to the sport? Can we all look at that objectively?

And that's why FIA = Ferrari International Assistance

Terry Rock · Apr 8, 2016

Absolute power corrupts!
Saying things like the drivers should not 'speak' but just drive the cars and the more laughable comment stating they're only in it for the money, speaks volumes.
If the 'powers' did not revert, every team in F1 should have shown up for the rest of the season... and run slowly around track in protest.
Just enough to meet and not breach any agreements with the FIA and FOM.
A few of those and people would stop attending.
Bernie would then still have to pay at the end of the season...despite a massive drop in ticket sales and sponsorship advertising.
A break-away series could then follow and the absolute monopoly would be over.
A loss of income is sometimes the only thing guy in absolute power understand...but I suspect he'd be 'jumping' to comply.

Bernd Graf · Apr 8, 2016

Quite frankly, the new ass-hat qualifying system discriminated against certain teams. In the end, F1 is about 2 things: money and preparedness. On the money end, acquire top drivers, manufacture best parts, make the most of any testing facilities; on the preparedness end, run as smooth a team as possible. To this, the 2016 preliminary qualy system favored only those teams with the most money and experience--and barely so.

F1 only increases its legacy as a tech war...for some teams, even fielding a car is miraculous, and it pissed me off to no end how cruelly the qualy system treated them. As if the pressure wasn't high enough. One thing I've learned from driving: pressure increases the probability of mistakes. As a team, fewer mistakes mean success...and the life of your driver. When something stands to threaten a team's focus by adding unnecessary pressure...TIME TO SCRAP.

jonelsorel · Apr 8, 2016

F1 is only about money and politics, just like everything else (almost). The sport is barely alive in there, squished between the two, kept on low oxygen supply. And it's such a toned down version of what it could be because of that. One only has to look at the correlation between budget cap, competitivity and fan base in other sports (say Nascar) to see where F1 goes wrong (not that I'm a fan of cars going around in circles). F1 is about the business of favoring the established teams while making it look "fair" to the untrained eye. Why not a budget cap and why just 11 teams? Because competition would actually RISE, and for certain teams/sponsors losing races would have a highly undesirable effect on sales figures. Hence one hand washes the other. Check back who opposed a budget cap consistently on every occasion it's been discussed. You'll have no surprises.

PsyaNyde · Apr 8, 2016

+1,
I've always favoured a budget cap in F1, and that should include drivers wages ( if your driver costs more, you have less to spend on development etc). Football should be the same too, both sports suffer from team elitism as a result of the current systems.

jonelsorel · Apr 8, 2016

Mo money, mo problems. All professional sports suffer because the business gets too big, at some point.

Chris · Apr 8, 2016

WardogZ said:
+1,
I've always favoured a budget cap in F1, and that should include drivers wages ( if your driver costs more, you have less to spend on development etc). Football should be the same too, both sports suffer from team elitism as a result of the current systems.

jonelsorel said:
Mo money, mo problems. All professional sports suffer because the business gets too big, at some point.

The problem is that in a sport such as F1, a budget cap is impossible to police.

Sean · Apr 8, 2016

About time! took them long enough to work out what a damp squid their new quali was.
Development restriction during the season is the biggest issue to me. Particularly with the new hybrid era. They should have allowed full development and testing for the first year or two at least to allow teams to find their sweet spot, then we would have not (hopefully) had the domination of Merc and closer racing at the front.

Rob · Apr 8, 2016

The Chinese Government is apparently less spooked by public opinion than is F1.

Personally, I thought the FIA bureaucrats would never go back, because to do so would be to admit they were wrong. And as we know, regulatory bodies are never wrong.

. Must have been public perception that needs changing...

Fat Rich · Apr 8, 2016

As I understand it, Todt and Ecclestone have only agreed to submit a proposal to return to the old format.

I believe Todt and Ecclestone each have 7 votes, whereas each team has only has 1 vote which means the proposal will fail if they both choose to vote it down.

I wouldn't be surprised if it all still goes pear shaped, it was supposed to sorted after Melbourne and we still ended up looking at empty race track in Bahrain.