27/02/2016
NEWS STORY
Bernie Ecclestone has revealed that the controversial new qualifying format will not be in place for the season opener.
The new format, agreed this week by the F1 Commission following its proposal by the Strategy Group sees qualifying effectively become three rounds of high-octane 'pass the parcel', whereby in Q1, Q2 and Q3 the slowest cars will be eliminated every thirty seconds, the survivors progressing to the next round until only two (usually the Mercedes duo these days) remain. At which point these two battle it out for pole.
However, despite the urgency in pushing the new format through, Bernie Ecclestone has revealed that the relevant software will not be in place for the season opener in three weeks time and consequently the new format's introduction will not come until Spain in May, the fifth round of the championship.
"The new qualifying won't happen because we can't get everything together in time," he told The Independent. "It was going to come in at the start of this year but we are not going to be able to get all the software done in time.
"So the qualifying changes will probably be in Spain. In Australia, it will be the old qualifying. All of the software has to be written so it's not easy."
Ecclestone, who this time last week was declaring that the sport is the worst its ever been, in the wake of the Strategy Group and F1 Commission meetings on Tuesday experienced an epiphany, insisting that everything is now fine and F1 is wonderful again.
That said, he remains disappointed that his proposal to reverse the grid wasn't taken up.
"It's not what I wanted in the end," he sighed. "All I'm trying to do is muddle up the grid so that the guy that is quickest in qualifying doesn't sit on pole and disappear because why should he be slow in the race if he is quick in qualifying?
"I wanted a very simple thing," he continued. "I wanted qualifying to stay as it is, because it is good, and then if a guy is on pole and has won the last race he gets so many seconds added to his time so he has to fight through the bloody pack to get in the lead, which he would do in the end. It would be exciting whilst he is doing it.
But the teams didn't agree.
"They don't want to do reverse grids," he admitted. "There are a million things they could do but they are completely mad. We can't do it alone because to get the things voted through it has to go through the commissions and then we have all the teams deciding."
So, we get the first five races – assuming the software is in place and works – think Live Timing App – and then the new format. That’s going to go down well, changing formats once the season is underway.
In other words, the opening races will be "the worst F1 has ever been", with things improving at Barcelona, a circuit that has a long history of producing one of the most soporific events on the calendar.