I doubt Halo would have saved Bianchi, not stopped Massa getting his head stoved in.
It might have saved Justin Wilson, but he wasn't in an F1 car; Indy car aren't getting them.
And drivers still get killed and seriously injured at Le Mans, so I'm nt sure of the benefit vs the downside in lack of visibility
Slight deviation but am I the only one who missed Jon Surtees getting a CBE in the new year honours? How has it taken me three months to notice?
Who's up then?
Nice to see Ferrari so close in FP3.
Roseburg seems nervous
this qualifying is nuts
They're like headless chickens! Liking it!
impressive lap from Hamilton on oldish rubber
Well the qualifying I'd actually interesting 🙂 Q2 should be a bit more fun, wondering if someone is going to get caught out. But surprised to see Mclaren up there.
merc have just turned up the wick 😯
dafuq!
Double...
😯
😯
And Ferrari have used most of their tokens too.
Brundle having a chunter.
he's not happy
Alono's toys being thrown around the paddock right now!
doesn't look like there's any chance of mchonda getting a podium this year either.
Brundle is annoying me now - the 'pure' qualifying now comes in Q3.
rosebergs car is very smokey
blimey orielly
Red Bull don't seem to have got the memo about this new format.
ferrari waving the white flag already 😯
OK - so Brundle may be right!
Elimination works for Q1 and Q2, but certainly not in Q3.
Well that went well. Lots of garage action.
Going to mix it up a bit on the longer laps but q3 was just a bit of a limp finish. I guess if you know that was your lap then save the tyres.
great last 3 minutes of qualifying 🙂
Utter farce, even the teams didn't have a clue what was going on.
that was a disaster !
Good grief - for all of F1s safety messages they drive around with Lewis sitting out of a car window!
Q1 and Q2 could sort of work, but instead of the mid pack flurry of activity with all cars trying to keep out of the elimination zone, it's an ever decreasing number of cars in that flurry. On those tracks where all times are much closer anyway (where even the Mercs go out for an extra run to cover themselves) that'll make the excitement less.
So all that's happened is the top 4 guys doing their banker on super-soft instead of medium.
Q3 should be 8 cars, same format as it used to be, then just reduce the time to enough to do say 3 flying laps, plus enough margin to let all cars get out, but not enough for them to come in for a 2nd set of tyres.
The old style qualy used to build to a peak coming down to the last few seconds.
We now have shots of them getting weighed when there was 3 minutes left.
Utter garbage
Anyone else finding the C4 coverage a bit cringeworthy?
In best Simpson's Comic book seller voice:
"Worst Qualifying Format...........EVER"
Utter Rubbish
I'm so confused!
Anyone else finding the C4 coverage a bit cringeworthy?
Yes me. Worse than ITV and that's saying something. Steve Jones looks out of his depth - thank god DC is there.
The whole thing is utter crap so far.
Formula 1 set to abandon new qualifying after Australian Grand Prix - http://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/35850766
It's not going well.
Well on the bright side - gives us our Saturdays back for riding as there is no point watching qually
I thought Steve Jones did a really good job. Mark Webber was a bit rabbit in the headlights, but it's early doors....
And yes, the new format doesn't work. They need to change it back for Q3 at the very least
In other news I'm looking forward to Sainz or Verstappen bagging their first podium some time this season...
Lame
I wish they'd just go back to the old 12 lap rule. It's qualifying ffs, stop trying to make it something it's not! Given that the races tend to be so dull, they'd be better toning down quali to make Sunday's seem better
Used to like qualifying...
Didn't think C4 did too bad a job really.
Ok qualifying.
Say 5 or 6 qualifying sessions - no extra tyres. Teams / drivers have to decide if they are going to use up tyres for a decent grid position, or if more / fresher tyres in the race would be a good idea.
Might work.
I thought C4 were fine, given what they had (new qualifying format) and the fact they only had a few months to put it all together.
Interesting comments from LH as well.
From Ecclestone [i]"What I don't want to see is where you and I could predict how the grid is going to be for the start of a race..."[/i]
How about a random number generator?
[i]... and how that race is going to finish"[/i]
Likewise, ignore which team has the fastest driver or car, just round up the top 6 finishers and use a revolver for Russian Roulette. First live bullet chooses the winner. Medal awarded posthumously. This will also increase the turn over of drivers so lots of new faces and fresh merchandising opportunities.
I don't see how any qualifying format which results in fewer (less?) cars on the track as it progresses can be good for the spectacle. And the slower teams get less and less track time, which further disadvantages them
22 cars, one flying lap each, slowest is out. Reset and repeat. Stick a 90 second window on leaving the garage to make sure there's a compressed timescale.
Would probably take too long for the telly tho.
C4 was OK, but they really didn't do a good job on explaining the quali format. Good comments from Lewis and nando, and what I heard of karun was promising. Bring on the race and some hopefully out of position haas and Williams
Edit - so call it 6 minutes for an out lap, timed lap and in lap. So run 7 lots of 8 minute sessions to make it a TV and ad friendly hour, lose 3 cars from the first couple, then 2 until the top 4 or 5 have one lap each for pole.
the whole thing was bobbins from start to finish, 2 cars on the track at the end of Q1 and none at the end of Q2 and Q3. They might as well said you get one flying lap make the most of it.
what a bunch of plebs .. amazing how the teams have all these simulators but not one of them managed a half decent simulation on how qualifying would be. Not particularly rocket science and Ecclestone should be fired as a PR liability.
amazing how the teams have all these simulators but not one of them managed a half decent simulation on how qualifying would be.
Hamilton said his engineers predicted exactly this but no one was willing to listen.
I think they should just have one hour of qualifying, you can do as much or as little as you want, best time counts.
(I had a dream about being a small boy sitting in front of the TV watching packets of Marlboros doing this 🙂 )
The C4 intro had me thinking my tv was on the blink with the low res graphics. Not a bad job but Steve Jones need to hold the Mic a bit lower as he looks like he is commenting on the 4:30 at Cheltenham. They again what do I know :). Should be and alright race tomorrow .. good results by Torro rosso.. a little disappointed by Bottas and Jenfonso working up the ladder
I've noticed the teams are working hard to improve the spectacle by heading to specsavers and donning their new prescriptive glasses!
Looks like they are binning the new qualifying format.
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12515/10210874/f1-qualifying-u-turn-likely-by-bahrain-gp-after-new-system-lambasted
I thought the fastest two had the last couple of minutes against each other? Rosberg gave up with 4 minutes to go, what have I missed?
Confused from Bolton.
P.s. Did anyone else notice the Renault mechanics wearing Bell Super 2R helmets? That would be an interesting one to throw in the 'is it a real ff helmet' discussions.
Hamilton and Rosberg did, the others decided they couldn't go faster so came stayed in. Probably the same would have happened if it was a normal quali, best time done, no rubber to kill. Pack up and head t'pub
Morning!
There's been a few rule changes overnight!
Looks like I'm the only one mad enough to get up early.
Nope. I just haven't looked. Cracking race so far
Certainly is - no idea how this one is going to pan out. Other than it's going to be a Merc or Ferrari.
Breaking news - MAJOR crash!
😯
Crikey!!!!
It'll buff out.
Pretty amazing to be able to walk away from that though.
What an amazing thing the tub is on those cars, you wouldn't have walked away from that uninjured in the past.
Bet there's a few merc drivers are glad of a safety car restart
Certainly is.
Brings up thoughts of the Halo though - I sure they'll test if a driver could get themselves out of a car in a situation like that, but I'm not sure they could.
the mchonda is shocking 😯
Nice one Grosjean!
Well worth getting up for.
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Alonso isn't having much luck in the NcHonda's. I wonder if that previous crash may be inhis mind. Different circs yes but still.
Kimi on form
"your car caught fire"
Kimi "meh"
No free to air F1 TV from 2019:
[url= http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/123434/no-freetoair-f1-in-uk-from-2019 ]Autosport link[/url]
Well done Bernie another nail in the coffin. Completely the wrong way to go... So at least that's consistent with the rest of F1s current direction.
I'd be raging of I were a C4 exec. I certainly wouldn't be throwing money and resourses at covering F1 knowing that it was going anyway.
Worst bit about the sad and now accelerating decline of F1 was that it was a good employer in the UK and demonstrated our talents for innovation.
In perfect symmetry the GPDA published a letter today questioning the leadership and direction of F1.
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/gpda-calls-for-reform-of-ill-structured-formula-1-681793/?s=1
Surely the stage is set for a breakaway series?
Well that's depressing.
Surely the stage is set for a breakaway series?
If this is true then I really hope that happens...
Unfortunately I guess the UK is a relatively tiny portion of the global market of f1.
Surely the stage is set for a breakaway series?
Contracts are numerous and complex and effectively make that impossible (eg restrictions on tv amd circuits showing/hosting rival open wheeled racing). Bernie is a very hard nosed business genius. This plus the drivers wouldn't take the pay cut required anyway.
@cp correct, the historic GPs like UK, Italy are good for history but don't count commercially. I imagine Sky's bid/interest is related to Asia.
No chance. That was much more realistic in the days of FOM while Moseley was still around and it didn't happen then.
Proper gone to shit now that its 100% pay-to-view come 2019 🙁
That's very bad news. Fewer people will watch it and sponsors will get less exposure.