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[Fred_C_Dobbs]

...And Turn 8 remains a legendary turn....

A legendary corner where there is no passing? So why not a loop-the-loop? Add a jump or two while you're at it.

[youtube]E-aesNMOVUY[/youtube]

[CarBore]

...And Turn 8 remains a legendary turn....

A legendary corner where there is no passing? So why not a loop-the-loop? Add a jump or two while you're at it.

[youtube]E-aesNMOVUY[/youtube]

Not every part of the track needs to be an overtaking spot. Turn 8 is a great test of both car and driver.

[spankyham]

I think there's a bit of a danger that Q will become less important, and therefore, less exciting because of the new tyres and tyre strategies. Nando commented to this effect before the season started, and here Horner is saying the same thing (article below).

Perhaps teams should be given one extra set of options at the start of qualifying and they have to hand back one set of options at the end of qualifying.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes qualifying on pole position is no longer the key to winning at certain circuits.

A combination of new tyres and overtaking aids has made it easier to pass for position this season and put an onus on pit strategy. At the recent Chinese Grand Prix Red Bull driver Mark Webber failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying, but raced from 18th to third on Sunday. He was helped by the fresh sets of soft tyres he saved by not taking part in the final two stages of qualifying and Horner has admitted Webber's performance has made his team rethink its approach to grand prix weekends.

"It makes you question the value of qualifying," Horner told the Sunday Times. "Now the cars can overtake and with such a big difference between old and new tyres, we are going to have to reassess at each track how important it is to get to the front of the grid. Our strategists will look at how we should be structuring our race weekends."

Each driver has three sets of soft tyres and three sets of hard tyres available to them for qualifying and the race. At most races last year front-running drivers used all three sets of soft tyres in qualifying, carrying the final set in to the race before stopping once for hard tyres.

However, with this year's Pirellis degrading more quickly, Horner believes drivers could be better off saving fresh sets of soft tyres for the race, even if it compromises grid position.

"According to the characteristics of the track and the tyres at any given weekend, you might want to tilt the whole thing in favour of having fast, new tyres at key parts of the race, maybe at the expense of qualifying," he added. "You have to do a lot of overtaking to make it work, but Mark showed it can be done. You could say he needed a couple more laps to have won. With two laps less we could have won with Sebastian, using a conventional strategy, based on good grid position."

[bud]

...And Turn 8 remains a legendary turn....

A legendary corner where there is no passing? So why not a loop-the-loop? Add a jump or two while you're at it.

[youtube]E-aesNMOVUY[/youtube]

Not every part of the track needs to be an overtaking spot. Turn 8 is a great test of both car and driver.

Exactly, just like eau rouge isn't famous for its passing.

[cap-dude]

I think qualifying has been de-valued a bit this year. But does that mean I'm any less on the edge of my seat whilst watching it. Not a chance. Besides, its good that pole position is less important now, because it makes races less predictable and boring now.

[Hansy]

This is certainly a much, much better deal than the last previous seasons, where qualifying position pretty much determined where you'd finish the race in most circuits. Still, we've yet to see how it works out in some traditionally hard-to-pass tracks - Barcelona could be a indicator for that.

[Flux]

yeah it doesn't make sense that people are worrying about the importance of qualy.

they wanted to improve racing and they did, but somewhere had to give in the whole f1 pie ( think i am mixing metaphors )

the whole idea was to remove those processional races when the hard work happened on Saturday.

[f1ea]

Yup agree..... how come Q was soooo decisive? that was a bit annoying, sure the fastest car should go up front, but now there's opportunity to make compromises ans improve chances for the race. Very few people watch Q anyway..... and if it'll make the race smore interesting then i think its ok to sacrifice an exciting Q

About Turn 8... hmm there was a lot of action last yr on that corner. I think more people went off on their own over there than at any other place on the calendar. Given this yr's degradation i expect even more action.

[FRAFPDD]

Blimey guys your just never happy!

They seem to have got the racing bit to a tee and now its moaning bout quali!

Also, If Button Hamilton and Vettel had all saved one or used both (as long as they all had done the same thing) then they most likely judging on Malaysia and China would hae finished in the same places they qualified.

That is; If Hamilton had used a second set like Button and Vettel, he more then likely would of beaten Jensons second/fastest time, and gone on to finish second. Where he started.

Now all the teams seem to have clocked that using one set in Q3 is the best option by far, the order will be restored to Pre-2011 and the order in which they qualify will be the order they usually finish. Or as Spanky suggested give them one extra set of options, although ALL this will do is improe the exciting-ness of quali, it wont make a difference to the fact quali is still as important as pre-2011 ESPECIALLY if all the Q3 teams only do one run.

[acosmichippo]

Also, If Button Hamilton and Vettel had all saved one or used both (as long as they all had done the same thing) then they most likely judging on Malaysia and China would hae finished in the same places they qualified.

I don't know about that. The whole reason RBR chose to have Vettel do a 2-stop was because of his poor start. So even if they all had the same tires, RBR still would have chosen to do a 2-stop, and Lewis would have still passed him in the end, I think.

[FRAFPDD]

I don't know about that. The determining factor in China seemed to be Vettel's poor start. Even if they all had the same tires, RBR still would have chosen to do a 2-stop, and Lewis would have still passed him, I think.

Surely an "unusual" poor start means that a usual start would hae seen Vettel fly away. Which is why qualis so important.

And you say if they all had the same tyres, meaning if they all used two option in quali or one set it doesnt matter either way, then lewis would have passed him still? Lewis only just passed him on 3 stops with fresh rubber, If they all had made two stops, Lewis may have finished behind Jenson let alone Vettel.

Point is somewhere along the line some of us hae come to the conclusion that quali has lost its importance. The only reason there were differing strategies with Lewis making the best one is that its early season and the normal running of things are still getting ironed out. Webber and Hamiltons performance shows all the Q3 runners will save a set of tyres now, as such there wont be any "abnormalities" and the finish order should be the same give or take as they started.

Alternatiely each cars tyre wear rate will come into play.

[acosmichippo]

I don't know about that. The determining factor in China seemed to be Vettel's poor start. Even if they all had the same tires, RBR still would have chosen to do a 2-stop, and Lewis would have still passed him, I think.

Surely an "unusual" poor start means that a usual start would hae seen Vettel fly away. Which is why qualis so important.

You misunderstand my point - I didn't say that to imply anything about qualifying. I was simply disagreeing with your statement.

And you say if they all had the same tyres, meaning if they all used two option in quali or one set it doesnt matter either way, then lewis would have passed him still? Lewis only just passed him on 3 stops with fresh rubber, If they all had made two stops, Lewis may have finished behind Jenson let alone Vettel.

Maybe, maybe not. The difference in Lewis', Jenson's, and Seb's tires was NOT that sigificant. If I remember correctly, Seb and Jenson didn't actually do a hot lap on their last set because Lewis' hotlap didn't beat either of their previously-posted times.

Lewis passed seb with two laps left, and I think if one set of his spare option tires were 95% fresh as opposed to 100%, he still would have passed him. Maybe closer to the end, but it would have happened.

Point is somewhere along the line some of us hae come to the conclusion that quali has lost its importance. The only reason there were differing strategies with Lewis making the best one is that its early season and the normal running of things are still getting ironed out. Webber and Hamiltons performance shows all the Q3 runners will save a set of tyres now, as such there wont be any "abnormalities" and the finish order should be the same give or take as they started.

Alternatiely each cars tyre wear rate will come into play.

I agree somewhat. If anything, qualifying is MORE important because teams have to find the most efficient use of their allocated tires. What i think everyone is saying is less important is grid position, because it's simply easier to overtake now.

[f1ea]

Blimey guys your just never happy!

They seem to have got the racing bit to a tee and now its moaning bout quali!

what? did you read the posts or assumed people were complaining about Q?

i read most of the posts above, and i think pretty much everyone enjoy the current format.

[FRAFPDD]

Blimey guys your just never happy!

They seem to have got the racing bit to a tee and now its moaning bout quali!

what? did you read the posts or assumed people were complaining about Q?

i read most of the posts above, and i think pretty much everyone enjoy the current format.

That wasnt really meant, it was just like in jest, put a exclamation mark to suggest i wasnt actually pissed! See! Exclamation marks make everything happier!

[f1ea]

That wasnt really meant, it was just like in jest, put a exclamation mark to suggest i wasnt actually pissed! See! Exclamation marks make everything happier!

ah ok... i thought exclamations made things angry......
except: yay!!