Thursday, May 18, 2006
A qualified success
Qualifying has, this season, been very successful. And although certain SofaF1 correspondents (mentioning no names Nick) would like to see it stay as it is, the odd tweak to the format in the third section aside it is a great format.
(Personally I'd like to see the final section be the same length it is now, with the ability to go beyond the end of the session for the last lap, but the teams have to declare driver start fuel before they start on that session, but you go out on low fuel. That way you'd still get the mixed up complications that make it all fun but you'd get a pure lap pole.)
But that isn't really what this post is about. This post is about what might happen at the next race. There are three things we know about qualifying at Monaco from previous years:
1) It's really difficult and dangerous to deal with traffic on a fast lap.
2) The track becomes faster during qualifying more that most other race tracks.
3) It's so difficult with overtaking that it was the only track where even single lap qualifying caused difficulties with slowing traffic (Montoya and ...).
So for this race coming up qualifying is going to be insane. Everyone is going to wait as late as possible and everyone is going to b needing to be on the same track as everyone else and at least one of the big names is going to be behind everyone else.
Everyone who hasn't won is counting on this factor to win the Monaco grand prix. Jenson thinks he's a dead cert, Kimi must be odds on, I mean even David thinks he's going to win it.
My guess? Massa's first win? Why? I have no idea.
(Personally I'd like to see the final section be the same length it is now, with the ability to go beyond the end of the session for the last lap, but the teams have to declare driver start fuel before they start on that session, but you go out on low fuel. That way you'd still get the mixed up complications that make it all fun but you'd get a pure lap pole.)
But that isn't really what this post is about. This post is about what might happen at the next race. There are three things we know about qualifying at Monaco from previous years:
1) It's really difficult and dangerous to deal with traffic on a fast lap.
2) The track becomes faster during qualifying more that most other race tracks.
3) It's so difficult with overtaking that it was the only track where even single lap qualifying caused difficulties with slowing traffic (Montoya and ...).
So for this race coming up qualifying is going to be insane. Everyone is going to wait as late as possible and everyone is going to b needing to be on the same track as everyone else and at least one of the big names is going to be behind everyone else.
Everyone who hasn't won is counting on this factor to win the Monaco grand prix. Jenson thinks he's a dead cert, Kimi must be odds on, I mean even David thinks he's going to win it.
My guess? Massa's first win? Why? I have no idea.
Comments:
<< Home
In fact, I would like to make the same tweak to the last session - perhaps even shorten it by five minutes? What I like about the current system is the lull before the storm: the slow building up of speed. But the wasting of fuel is absurd.
I think we have to look at the reason for qualifying: to make sure everyone on the grid is fast enough to compete in the race, and to get an order for the grid. The problem we've had is that if the fastest car goes at the front and the slowest at the back, then we don't have a race. What we've been trying to do is upset that: keep roughly the fastest cars at the front, roughly the slowest at the back, so there's some movement.
I think we just need to emphasise the 'one lap' element. Qualifying will be about who is fastest over one lap - who can get the best set-up, and make the least mistakes. It might sometimes, but won't always be, the same car/driver that is fastest in the race.
This is how it used to be, I believe. Drivers like Montoya and Trulli would be incredibly fast in quali, then slow in the race. We still got the same mix up of the grid, but without the confusing element of fuel loads.
I think we have to look at the reason for qualifying: to make sure everyone on the grid is fast enough to compete in the race, and to get an order for the grid. The problem we've had is that if the fastest car goes at the front and the slowest at the back, then we don't have a race. What we've been trying to do is upset that: keep roughly the fastest cars at the front, roughly the slowest at the back, so there's some movement.
I think we just need to emphasise the 'one lap' element. Qualifying will be about who is fastest over one lap - who can get the best set-up, and make the least mistakes. It might sometimes, but won't always be, the same car/driver that is fastest in the race.
This is how it used to be, I believe. Drivers like Montoya and Trulli would be incredibly fast in quali, then slow in the race. We still got the same mix up of the grid, but without the confusing element of fuel loads.
I agree with you Nick regarding the qualifying and fuel loads.
Back in the day, before all these qualifying changes happened every five minutes, the qualifying session really was a separate event.
Cars would run with different aero packages and set ups "qualifying trim" and even different engines, tuned to extract even more power for a few laps (this was when the races engines were built to last just 2 hours!!) all designed to get the car around the circuit in the fastest possible time.
This meant that there was no confusion over race fuel as the cars would all have 3 or 4 laps of fuel in and to carry any more would be madness.
Then the start of the race would be an unknown, a different set up, everyone on different fuel loads with their own race strategies ... which might even lead to someone else winning who wasn't the pole sitter.
Post a Comment
Back in the day, before all these qualifying changes happened every five minutes, the qualifying session really was a separate event.
Cars would run with different aero packages and set ups "qualifying trim" and even different engines, tuned to extract even more power for a few laps (this was when the races engines were built to last just 2 hours!!) all designed to get the car around the circuit in the fastest possible time.
This meant that there was no confusion over race fuel as the cars would all have 3 or 4 laps of fuel in and to carry any more would be madness.
Then the start of the race would be an unknown, a different set up, everyone on different fuel loads with their own race strategies ... which might even lead to someone else winning who wasn't the pole sitter.
<< Home
