Knockout-style qualifying in F1
Madrid, Feb. 24: Formula One may have a new qualifying system for the upcoming season, with drivers being eliminated every few minutes.
The proposal was unanimously app-roved in a meeting between F1 stakeholders in Geneva, governing body FIA said on Wednesday.
The new system will be evaluated for introduction at the first Grand Prix of the year in Australia on March 20. A final vote is expected next week by FIA’s World Motor Sport Council.
The new qualifying system would have three separate sessions, like now, but instead of having the slowest drivers eliminated at the end of each session, they would be dropped one by one every minute-and-a-half.
All cars would have seven minutes to set their times in the beginning of the session, and seven drivers would be eliminated. Another seven drivers would be eliminated in the second session after having six minutes to set their times, one by one again, and the final eight would advance.
In the final session, drivers would have five minutes to set their times before the 90second elimination begins, until just two cars are left for the final minute-and-a-half duel.
Teams, promoters, and FIA also approved “new measures designed to deliver a faster, more spectacular” F1 championship in 2017.
— AP