Just seven days ahead of the opening round of the 2016 season, the FIA's F1 Commission has unanimously approved the new qualifying format... albeit with a tweak.

The procedure is now as follows:

a) From 14.00 to 14.16 (Q1) all cars will be permitted on the track. Seven minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session.

The same procedure will then apply after 8m30s, 10m0s, 11m30s, 13m0s and 14m30s leaving sixteen cars eligible to continue.

At the end of the session all drivers on the track may complete the lap they are on and, once these final laps have been completed, the driver last in the classification may take no further part in the qualifying practice session.

Lap times achieved by the fifteen remaining cars will then be deleted.

b) From 14.24 to 14.39 (Q2) the fifteen remaining cars will be permitted on the track. Six minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session.

The same procedure will then apply after 7m30s, 9m0s, 10m30s, 12m0s and 13m30s leaving nine cars eligible to continue.

Lap times achieved by the eight remaining cars will then be deleted.

c) From 14.46 to 15.00 (Q3) the eight remaining cars will be permitted on the track. Five minutes after the start of the session the driver last in the classification will be eliminated and will no longer be timed, he must then return to the pit lane and may take no further part in the qualifying practice session.

The same procedure will then apply after 6m30s, 8m0s, 9m30s, 11m0s and 12m30s leaving two cars eligible to continue.

At the end of the session any driver on the track may complete the lap he is on and, once any final lap has been completed, the overall classification will be established.

The above procedure is based upon 22 cars being officially eligible to take part in the event. If 24 cars are eligible eight will be excluded after Q1 and Q2, if 26 cars are eligible nine cars will be excluded after Q1 and Q2, and so on if fewer cars are eligible. If necessary, the intervals between the sessions and eliminations will be adjusted to ensure Q3 remains unchanged.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Ro, 11/03/2016 16:42

"Maybe they should rename the whole procedure that was once known as QUALIFYING.....best call it "I HAVE NO IDEA OF WHATS GOING ON" There was nothing wrong with the previous way of qualifying....Its just another crappy way to spice up the proceedings.....ho hum"

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2. Posted by nnails, 11/03/2016 15:35

"as a kid i use to love the 1hr do what you want qualifying just loving the atmosphere waiting for the one magic lap.

Now i dont care about qually, congrates"

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3. Posted by stoney, 11/03/2016 14:18

"I can't spot the difference... other than different words. Help?"

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4. Posted by ClarkwasGod, 11/03/2016 13:56

"Which rule is it (bringing the sport into disrepute) that the FIA will be taking themselves to court with over this?"

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5. Posted by scf1fan, 11/03/2016 12:12

"Although I have my concerns that the interval timing (1:30) could be an issue on longer circuits, and with individual drivers slowing mid circuit once they are eliminated; this format will get the cars out of the pits throughout the qualifying period. I would think that that might be a good thing, but I also don't believe that that was a significant problem either. (One might have considered the mid-session lull as a bit of a breather before each session's climatic moments. Perhaps it will just wind up being a tradeoff between activity and drama.)"

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6. Posted by TokyoAussie, 11/03/2016 12:12

"How will each driver being knocked out be informed of his demise? The fans cannot see radio messages, that form of communication that apparently is being overused. Surely all aspects of racing should be possible without radio. Wasn't that one of Bernie's complaints last year. I hope to see drivers having radio "problems" in qualifying, and then driving on regardless.

Better still, if a driver is knocked out, what's to stop him continuing to drive until the chequered flag? And perhaps going faster than all the others in the process. Will the marshals black flag a car? That would be the icing on this qualifying cake. "

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7. Posted by CL, 11/03/2016 11:51

"The deletion of times between sessions solves that problem, nonickname.

What it does mean is if it rains part way through a session then they all just come back to the pits as that sessions best time would have been set before the rain started. The next session starts with a clean sheet so you would see some fighting in the rain."

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8. Posted by nonickname, 11/03/2016 11:00

"So... if it rains after Q1 the 22 cars that are left draw straws for the grid positions behind the Q3 finishers??
I love it,just more crap in sport that generates crap.."

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9. Posted by Darvi, 11/03/2016 10:30

"What a load of nonsense. There are fundamental issues with Formula 1 at the moment and all they are doing is dreaming up gimics for the bits that aren't even broken. Why not go the whole hog and make the drivers switch cars every time the music stops and take away one car each time......

The issues that need to be resolved are about distribution of money, regulation stability and a proper strategy to take F1 forward."

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FIA tweaks qualifying for Melbourne.

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