Qualifying changes won't distract from F1's bigger problems

Announcing that Formula One is considering revamping the qualifying format is a little bit like hearing Sam Newman is getting another facelift. It might make a slight improvement, but it won’t address the core problem.

Despite sounding like a bonus level in a computer game, the proposed elimination system where one car is knocked out every 90 seconds has some merits.

It has an air of familiarity, an ease of understanding that will certainly connect with casual fans that find some aspects of the sport impenetrable.

It’s hard to imagine though that teams like Mercedes, who have dominated qualifying for the last few years, will be too troubled by the changes.

If the idea is to get more cars on the track, it’s hard to see the front-runners doing unnecessary laps when they could simply put in a stellar lap time and spend the rest of the session cooling their heels in the garage.

Similarly, if the elimination format runs all the way through Q3 we’ll end up with a shoot-out between two cars. It will rob us of the spectacle of having a half a dozen cars all crossing the line in the dying seconds.

Even worse, since it has come to light that the timing software would need to be rewritten to allow the introduction of such a scheme, the news that it may not be introduced until later in the year just doesn’t sit right with me.

Yet we keep looking for ways to break the monotony of teams like Mercedes and Red Bull before them.

“I think if we had a different grid we would certainly have different racing,” Ecclestone reasoned this week. “It’s no good just seeing Mercedes in the front, without any competition. That’s what I complained about.”

When looking for ways to spice up the Monaco Grand Prix, the pundits have suggested everything under the sun – including having two short sprint races on both Saturday and Sunday. I can’t entertain such a notion. The idea that we could leave the weekend without ‘a winner’ of the event for that year makes a mockery of the entire exercise.

So we are left with three possibilities.

Firstly, we could introduce the elimination as early as possible – probably for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Again, I’m not keen on the idea that someone could take a pole position under one qualifying format, and have that achievement compared to that of another driver taking pole under a different format later in the season.

It introduces artificial inconsistencies that could have real implications for the drivers; David Coulthard was particularly vocal of the old ‘one lap shoot-out’ style, for example.

Another possibility would be to shelve the proposed changes until 2017.

I’m sure the rule-makers are keen to do whatever it takes to earn some good will with the ticket buyers by fast-tracking the new format, however when a knee-jerk regulation is introduced it tends not to end well, with double-points being a notable case in point.

And with Mercedes qualifying form expected to continue regardless of the qualifying format the move will seem like just another gimmick that would only worsen the standing of the sport among purists.

Lastly, is the most common sense approach – don’t change the qualifying format.

If you asked anyone, from the layperson to the Formula One tragics, what was wrong with the sport, the qualifying format would rank lower than Eddie Jordan’s fashion sense, but only slightly.

Following Lewis Hamilton’s assertions late last season that taking pole is almost as good as winning the race, the golden bullet has nothing to do with how the cars line up on Saturday, it’s whether the cars can fight for position on Sunday.

And there’s plenty of experts saying that we need to reduce aerodynamic grip to do that, which begs the question… why are we even talking about qualifying?