New Qualifying format a flop or not?

[Nitrodaze]

We watched the new qualifying format for the first time in action in Melbourne and what do we think? The first think l notice is the impact of commentating. There was little opportunity for typical chat about the car, the driving, strategies and track conditions etc. It was mostly about the time and the commentators had very little time to talk about anything else.

The new format only had a real effect in the mid fields. Qualifying three was a real flop as the teams that made it through only applied effort to attain the positions they realistically expect to be. There were fewer cars banging out lap times to better their position hence it was dull from the ticket paying spectators point of view.

The worrying thing was that qualifying has become alot more predictable. The count down time has sapped the excitement of crescendo that typically happen at the end of each qualifying session. It is very clear that it would not work going forward. Most of the team principles do not think it worked as anticipated. And there are calls already for this qualifying format t be dropped. I personally think it was crap. I wonder what you think.