Unease regarding new qualifying format
Despite the fact that the new qualifying format is due to be introduced at Silverstone, in three weeks, there is still widespread confusion as to how, precisely, the session will be run, together with unease as to whether it will work or not.
Frank Williams explains the new format, as he understands it.
"Essentially, there is again only one official qualifying session," explained the Englishman. "And that is split into two 25-minute sessions with a ten-minute gap in between and each team is allowed to do a total of six laps, and is allowed to use four sets of tyres for that first 25 and the second 25 session though you must start the race on the tyres on which you qualified.
"Your qualification time is based on the aggregate for the - first time ever in Formula One - on the best lap of the first 25 minutes and the second 25 minutes."
Asked about fuel loads, he replied: "I thought they should be done as a parc ferme before qualifying begins but most people prefer to put fuel in after qualifying so that is how it is going to be if everyone has signed."
And has everyone signed?
"It is agreed so far as I know," said the Williams boss. "Williams have signed it and I have had no notice from Bernie or the FIA.
"It is a formality now," he added, "I think there is some reservation that maybe what we are doing presently is maybe better than what we are going to do in Silverstone if it happens."
In other words not everyone's happy, and it's not 100% guaranteed that the new format will be run as we don't know if everyone has agreed.
Certainly, Ferrari's Ross Brawn, has his doubts:
"I think it's very difficult to find a format which is perfect for everybody," admitted the Englishman. "I think we all have our ideas and this is a format that has been proposed by Bernie, so really he's got to take responsibility for it if it doesn't work. And he is the promoter of Formula One, so we have to do our best to try and help the promoter put on as good a show as possible, and in that respect we support it.
"There was some detail to sort out," he revealed, "there were some detailed points that if they hadn't been resolved would have made it difficult, so therefore we stuck out a little bit for the detail, but once that detail was sorted we were happy to support it. So it's going to be interesting to see.
"It will mean that we're back to running whatever fuel we want in the race and the cars will be qualifying with their minimum weight, so that's interesting. My only concern is to make sure that we present the accumulative or aggregate system properly to the people at the track. I think it's easy for a TV viewer to follow what's going on because of technology, or it should be, but I'm concerned that the people in the grandstands know what's going on, so it's very important that we get the message across to them where everyone is and what their situation is because it will be a shame if the people at the track can't follow what's going on in qualifying.
"But certainly we will be back to the spectacle of having all the cars out on the track. There will be all the arguments about yellow flags and 'he slowed me up' and 'he did that' and 'he did the other…' which is all part of the fun of qualifying and it's what used to make it so entertaining a couple of years ago.
"Certainly the cars should be running more often with the need to run in the two sessions and the limitation on the number of laps in each session. I think it should be interesting.
"I'm a little concerned that we don't keep making too many changes," he admitted. "I think it doesn't reflect well on Formula One. This is our third format of qualifying this year and I really hope we get it right this time, because I don't think it's a good thing that we keep changing the format of racing.
