Qualifying set to return to 2015 format from next race in China // Teams unite to force governing body's hand
Published by Christine
The qualifying format has dominated far too many headlines since the season began, particularly as no one liked the elimination style and almost everyone was keen to see the back of it. The FIA weren’t so keen that their sport be seen to be going backwards, and hoped for an alternative format, but after teams united and wrote a strongly worded letter to the governing body, things have changed.
The teams unanimously insisted they wanted to return to 2015 style qualifying – you remember that simple format of three sessions with the six slowest going after fifteen minutes – and whilst we don’t know what their bargaining tool was, a boycott perhaps, it worked. From China onwards, we’ll be back to 2015 style qualifying.
The FIA and Bernie Ecclestone do want to look for different options in the future though, as they “welcomed the idea put forward by the teams to have a global assessment of the format of the weekend for 2017.”
