Green Flag For Qualifying Revamp Ahead Of Australian F1 GP.

Valtteri Bottas, Williams, AGP. (C)

    The 2016 Formula One season is here. Came around fast didn't it? A shortened F1 winter testing season is completed. So who's looking strong ahead of racing hostilities commencing? Ferrari's looking strong, but can they challenge recent benchmarks Mercedes? You know what? Let's not go there. Testing is just that. Testing! Any true indication of speed won't come until 6pm on the Saturday of the Australian GP after the first qualifying session of the season.
    Excitement and anticipation levels for spectators build over the final countdown to any GP. They reach unbearable heights as the cars strain to be unleashed during the warm up lap followed by lights out and the run into Turn 1. The other contingent of a GP weekend which is compulsive viewing for punters is qualifying. 2016 sees a reworking of the popular elimination style qualifying session. 3 qualifying periods remain, but now Q1 runs for 16 min with the slowest car eliminated after 7 min, then another car eliminated every subsequent 90 sec until 15 cars are left. Q2 runs for 15 min with the slowest out after 6 min, then a car every 90 sec until 8 cars remain. The 14 min Q3 sees the slowest out after 5 min, then another car eliminated every 90 seconds until we have a pole winner. An expansion of the existing qualifying, but will the fans embrace it? Will this force the teams to run as many qualifying laps as time allows? Fans will certainly enjoy seeing as many cars as possible all punching out qualifying laps. However, if weather conditions remain stable, as the track evolves with more rubber going down, have we lost the strategic element when track conditions are at their optimum of a late qualifying charge to steal pole?
    The other intriguing change for 2016 is tyre supplier Pirelli making three dry weather compounds available to the teams over a GP weekend. Out of the 13 sets available, two are mandated for the race with one mandatory to use. One set of the softest of the three compounds is mandated for Q3 only. The teams are free to choose whichever compounds they want to make up their 13 sets. This allows much more flexibility amongst the teams, with some teams including Mercedes splitting their tyre choices between their drivers. Does this help combat processional racing?
    We'll see at the Australian Grand Prix. See you at Albert Park. Ciao....    

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