The FIA has decided that the new Formula 1 qualifying rules for the 2006 season are not yet complicated enough, and compensated by adding yet another rule for the Saturday qualifying session.

For those not in the know (I am assuming that’s most of my readers?), for the 2006 season, the FIA has scrapped the existing 1 lap shootout format and replaced it with a series of three mini-qualifying sessions that knock out drivers as they progress. Here’s the condensed version.

• First 20 minute session; All cars on track, slowest 5 (6, now Super Aguri F1 has gained entry?) cars get knocked out, and take their respective places at the rear of the grid.
• Second 20 minute session; Remaining cars on track, slowest 5 (6, see above) of the remaining cars take positions 11-16 on the grid.
• Third 20 minute session; Fastest 10 cars on track. At end of the session they are ordered fastest to slowest and slide into grid positions 1-10.

If you didn’t think this was complicated enough, you need to watch out for the following extra conditions.

• Those knocked out in sessions one and two (positions 11-22) are allowed to refuel their cars before the start of the race, other than this, cars get put into parc ferme until the race.
• Cars entering the final session (the fastest 10 cars), have to start session three with the fuel level they want to start on for the race. At the end of the session each car would be ‘credited’ fuel depending on the number of laps they did during the final session to bring their fuel back up to the level they started the final session with.

This was the current state of the 2006 season qualifying rules, until today.

There was concern that the fuel credit system could be used as a loophole, with drivers in the final session doing very slow laps (mainly laps in and out from the pits) in order to conserve fuel, and hence start the race on a higher fuel level than they did the final qualifying session. In steps the FIA to complicate things further. We can add the following extra condition

• For the final session, only laps that are within 110% of that drivers fastest lap will be fuel credited before the start of the race. For example, if a drivers fastest lap is 1 minute exactly. Only laps that are faster than 1 minute 6 seconds will get credited fuel, therefore penalising drivers trying to save fuel for the race.

I personally don’t understand what was wrong with the shootout format. It was simple for the viewer to figure out, and still enjoyable to watch. I don’t really understand what was wrong with the old qualifying format, 1 hour, all cars on low fuel fighting it out for the fastest time in both a Friday and Saturday session. But thats just me, I guess. Does anyone else think this years qualifying format is a bit silly? If a qualifying format can’t be be described in a few sentences, is it too complicated?

I can’t see it drawing more people to the sport we love.

technorati tags: Formula1, Qualifying, 2006, Season, Qualifying Changes, F1, Super Aguri