Round 1: Australia 2016: Something that claims to be Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

I think I speak for the entire fanbase, the entire paddock and everyone else when I sit back question what in the seven hells was that... I suspected that there might be a few teething problems with the new format, but instead what we were faced with was a disastrous mess, chaos and confusion. Teams had no idea what was happening and even those who did realised relatively quickly that the whole thing was a colossal balls up. What I fail to understand is that with all the engineers, analysts and geniuses in the pit lane never saw this coming. The problem is that none of those clever people were actually invited to the meetings and it was down to the bosses of the individual teams to iron it out... which clearly worked so well. As a pure and theoretical concept it sort of makes sense that it might provide an entertaining and dynamic session... but almost none of that theory actually made it into practice.

In the end did any of these changes actually achieve what Bernie ultimately wanted - to mix up the grid, make Sundays crazy... In a word no. In fact not only did we still end up with a very stereotypical order throughout most of the grid - it took less time to get there and with a lot less track action. So in that respect every single part of this new system turned out to be a complete and utter failure... so on that positive note lets have a look at the story of qualifying.

Q1...ish

The first session of the first race of the season was met with some anticipation and a little dose of skepticism as everyone tried to predict how it was all going to work... or not work as it eventually turned out. So because the first elimination was due seven minutes into the session - they queued in the pits waiting to set an early time. There were a couple of small on track battles to secure track position, Rosberg and Grosjean pounced on Hamilton and

Raikkonen passed Hulkenberg. After the a few minutes the problems of the new format became very obvious... once a driver has set a qualifying lap on a set of tyres, they have to pit and refuel in the garage... This takes longer than the elimination period so it actually becomes impossible for drivers to really compete.

So both Manors, and Haas entries were eliminated without having a chance to do anything about it. Both Grosjean and Gutierrez were on stronger laps but under the rules, if the time runs out.. tough frankly. So it seemed Haas misread the regulations or got the timing wrong. Then Kvyat found himself eliminated due to much the same problem, it isn't possible to turn the car round and out again in 3 minutes same for Felipe Nasr. The only driver who could do anything was Jolyon Palmer, because the last elimination ties up with the end of the session so he was allowed to complete the lap he started unlike anyone else. So Jolyon improve and made it into Q2 at Ericsson's expense.

Q2... sort of

If the first session was a bit of a mess, Q2 was no better because there was even less time for those surviving drivers to set a baseline time. When they completed that first lap - so many were unable to change tyres, fuel up and try

again. If you didn't have the fastest cars at the beginning - you were doomed to elimination, this trapped both Renaults and both McLarens who either too far down to have time to set another lap or didn't really see the point of setting another lap. Only Ferrari and Williams really had enough time to make a real second go of it - which worked for Massa and the Ferrari team. Bottas on the other hand got a little sideways in a couple of places and that was that. 

And here is another problem, even if a car has time remaining in the session before the designated elimination period, it makes no difference because the cars can't perform multiple laps on a single set of qualifying tyres. So not only is the format a mess the tyre options are holding it all back. in the end of Q2 we had a track with no cars on it and no competition... well done everyone.

Q3... almost

So eight cars remained, Toro Rosso, Ferrari, Mercedes, Ricciardo and Massa and traditionally in a Q3 session that would mean some cars would head out for the first run and the rest of them would join in for an all out challenge in the second half of the session. It wouldn't surprise you learn that the reality was far worse than that... far worse.

All the cars went out to set a lap time and Hamilton took a provisional pole from Vettel, Kimi and Nico - Ricciardo crossed the line in 8th place and was eliminated on the spot effectively as there is no time for a reply. It became clear that everyone except the top four would not be able to have a second run, yes that is quite bad but maybe Ferrari and Mercedes would be able to have a fight for pole... But it got even worse when it turned out that the fact that drivers have to change tyres more often due to their poor durability and the nature of the format, Ferrari didn't have any left. So Vettel and Kimi couldn't compete either. With five minutes to go only Hamilton and Rosberg could take part. Nico tried to take pole, but fell 6 hundredth short... and then it was all over. With four minutes to go the track fell silent as Lewis set another devastating laptime. 

If the qualifying session wasn't crushing enough, the fact that Mercedes can comfortably annihilate the competition at will...

Bonus Points

It took a while before I even decided how to score that session, so little happened to actually award points to anyone for it... so as a compromise I have determined that it only deserves half points, and any decent action that might have happened wasn't even shown because the camera focussed on drivers getting out of cars and looking at those being eliminated. For the most part I have no idea what happened to most of the grid... As a result here are the points

5pts - Mad Max Verstappen - 5th place in a Toro Rosso is impressive and because of the system, we saw virtually none of it.
4pts - Carlos Sainz Jnr - 7th makes it two Toro Rossos ahead of the factory team and close to the Ferrari's using the older specification engine
3pts - Romain Grosjean - Scores points for bothering Hamilton at the start of the firs session
2.5pts - Lewis Hamilton - Totally destroyed any competition today, with a comfortable margin to even Nico in the same car
2pts - Fernando Alonso - Got a McLaren close to the top ten... not that there is a top ten in qualifying anymore
1.5pts - Jolyon Palmer - Was the only person to beat the elimination system... but only because of the rules
1pt - Daniel Ricciardo - The only Renault powered car inside the final part of qualifying.
0.5pts - Martin Brundle/David Croft - Get a point each for giving the new session the kicking it needed.

Will Tomorrow be Better

I really hope so, I really do. If it gets much worse I dread to think what the course of action would be going forward. I imagine that Mercedes will, barring failure make complete mincemeat of everyone else. Ferrari might keep them in sight for a little bit before dropping back.

It's everyone else that might provide the entertainment - Verstappen near the front and Kvyat near the back means there might be intrigue throughout the pack. They haven't messed too much with the format of the race... which is the only part of the weekend that needs work... Hopefully tomorrow will give us something to forget the disappointment that was today...