Revised Qualifying Format for 2015

[Spyderman]

I think that this will be a marked improvement: http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/r...-set-for-2015/

[Beryl]

I think this is a good compromise between simplicity for the viewer and making qualifying a team endeavor for drivers. Having cars on track for the majority of each session should be preserved as well. Two sets of tires could aid in that regard as well.

[deggis]

Distilled:

ACO Sporting Director Vincent Beaumesnil confirmed to Sportscar365 that only the best single lap from each of the two qualifying drivers will be scored, with the sessions likely to be reduced from 25 to 20 minutes in length.

“It’s just something to make it more simple,” Beaumesnil told Sportscar365. “The plan is that instead of having two laps per driver it will be one lap per driver.

I'm not entirely even sure why they try to make the qualifying more exciting other than making sure the track is somewhat active all the time just for the specators at the track. For everybody else it is pretty irrelevant and for teams waste of resources and time versus just adding more time to practice sessions and then forming the grid from the practice times a la LM24. Of course pole matters even less in 24h race, but at least it has true headline value unlike these regular race qualifyings.

[Rodger Davies]

It's a start. Now, if they just make sure they only need a single time of one driver, instead of averaging two, I think we could have a good format on our hands. I know taking the fastest time set in the session to decide the grid order sounds like a crazy idea, but I think it just might work.

[J Jay]

Good move. I get that they want the qualifying format to be somewhat representative of the race, but it just adds unnecessary complications for everyone involved.

The race is for looking at driver averages in great detail. Qualifying should be the hot-shot shoot-out where nothing but the quickest time matters.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by deggis

I'm not entirely even sure why they try to make the qualifying more exciting other than making sure the track is somewhat active all the time just for the specators at the track. For everybody else it is pretty irrelevant and for teams waste of resources and time versus just adding more time to practice sessions and then forming the grid from the practice times a la LM24. Of course pole matters even less in 24h race, but at least it has true headline value unlike these regular race qualifyings.

Think they cannot do it the LM-way is as then they couldn't have a "qualifying broadcast" nicely packaged into that one hour standard format. At LM everything gets covered but at these sprint races not (not that anyone would really bother watching them even if they were)

Anyway, as long as they don't touch Le Mans Q format I don't care anymore what they do with the rest of the schedule.

PS only 6 hours of the 18h45mins of pre-race running at Le Mans counts for qualifying, and even if you take out the test day and warm-up that's still just six out of ten hours.

[Beryl]

Originally Posted by Rodger Davies

It's a start. Now, if they just make sure they only need a single time of one driver, instead of averaging two, I think we could have a good format on our hands. I know taking the fastest time set in the session to decide the grid order sounds like a crazy idea, but I think it just might work.

Because the track would be empty for nearly each session. Do you not remember 2012 when Toyota and Audi went out, did a lap and then came back in? It wasn't worth watching. Two drivers guarantees 6 laps for each car on track.

[Gingers4Justice]

I think it's a bit of a shame. I was really getting into the format of it, and every now and again it would throw up something strange when teams got their tactics wrong (or sometimes fluked them).

If you're going to do one driver, one lap time, you should take away the point for pole - being quick over one lap counts for nothing in this discipline.

It's a nice compromise though.

[TF110]

I think itll be less of a preview for the car with better consistency. Whats the deal with allowing a tire change? If that is allowed then it gets even closer to f1 style, which everyone loves to criticize the wec for trying to emulate! I dont care either way.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Think they cannot do it the LM-way is as then they couldn't have a "qualifying broadcast" nicely packaged into that one hour standard format.

What tv channel currently broadcasts such thing? If talking about the official streaming, then they might just instead broadcast the last practice, since the hardcore fans (all hundred of them) will watch anything.

[Ephaeton]

I prefer the 2014 Q rules.
By no means is this an improvement in my book, quite the contrary.

[Simmi]

I don't mind this change at all.

It should still ensure some of the interesting tactical elements we've had this year. Chiefly getting the guys out on track during the best conditions and jumping back in if you need to. But it simplifies it so you aren't waiting so long to wait for the pecking order to make itself clear.

I think it was Trussers who worked out that the car with the fastest single lap was always ending up on pole anyway. And if that is the case (I don't have time to check) then it might as well be simplified. Qualifying to me should be about pace - but this also requires the team effort we love about endurance.

[Ephaeton]

Yeah I can see your point, Simmi (and, implicitly, Truswell's) -- yet I prefer the pressure of having to deliver twice the amount of laps (in just five minutes more time than they want to give time now).

What it means for '15, basically, (to my understanding) is that each driver is given two attempts at setting 100% of their share for the average time. Previously, depending on length of out+in-lap + two hot laps, not always could both driver be given a 'second' chance to deliver 100% (more like 150% + 200% or 100% + 150-200%).

Well, even though I liked the current format and would've loved to see more historic reference be established using this mode, it's not that this will wreck Q for me in '15. I'm curious to see how it will have played out in hindsight, with regard to above point.

[Ephaeton]

Something we saw yesterday and we won't see in 2015 was the fast-slow-fast thing porsche was/is doing, in contrast to the fast-fast's of toyota and Audi, which hints to their respective hybrid qualities.

We won't see this in 2015.

[Spyderman]

Originally Posted by Ephaeton

Something we saw yesterday and we won't see in 2015 was the fast-slow-fast thing porsche was/is doing, in contrast to the fast-fast's of toyota and Audi, which hints to their respective hybrid qualities.

We won't see this in 2015.

I think it had more to do with managing tire ware.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Ephaeton

Something we saw yesterday and we won't see in 2015 was the fast-slow-fast thing porsche was/is doing, in contrast to the fast-fast's of toyota and Audi, which hints to their respective hybrid qualities.

We won't see this in 2015.

Battery-type hybrids probably need to do this in order to fully recharge for a flying lap, F1 cars sometimes do this in qualifying as well.

[Spyderman]

Again: I think it has to do with cooling tires.

[Spyderman]

Here is some indication of this: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/116985