a weighty issue

According to James Allen , the FIA is considering giving out the weights for all the cars after Q3 .

When we had low fuel quals , back in the good ol' days , we never knew how much was on board for the race , so we knew who was fastest , but not how far into the race they would be able to go .
Then , we got fixed fuel qualifying , and though we knew how fast they were , but not knowing how far they were going , kept the mystery until the first stops , as it had before .

But , now , they are talking about Q3 lock-up , and at the same time , letting us know the fuel levels ?

It makes me wonder at why they think we would watch a race when we know the results before it starts .

It wont make any difference, some clever clogs always did the math on a saturday night so when you turned on on sunday the presenters told you who was stopping when, and there was usually only ever a lap or two difference to their predictions and reality.

We haven't got a smiley for "bangs head on table and wonders why they just don't go back to letting them run light on fuel in qualifying" have we?

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Originally Posted by Sleeper

It wont make any difference, some clever clogs always did the math on a saturday night so when you turned on on sunday the presenters told you who was stopping when, and there was usually only ever a lap or two difference to their predictions and reality.

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An accurate comment, but not knowing would leave a little doubt/hope for the fans of those who's qualifying was sub-par for any number of reasons.
I remember Monza 2006 Steve Matchet (who is very good at this discipline) kept going on and on how RK had to be running really light as he slotted into p3 (eventually securing his first ever F1 podium) and eventually ran p1 for 2 laps or more in that first stint! He was substantially heavier than Kimi, Mike, Fred, and Massa. It's these anomalies that make it worthwhile to have secret/undisclosed fuel strategy!
Just my opinion! ;)

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Originally Posted by inimitablestoo

We haven't got a smiley for "bangs head on table and wonders why they just don't go back to letting them run light on fuel in qualifying" have we?

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You're right , Stoo .

And , give them a dozen laps over the hour .
If it's 3 flying stabs at it each quarter hour , and you lose them if you don't use them , we'd see some action all through .

Let them have one engine per race weekend , and only penalize a change on that weekend .
Sure , it costs a little more to make a few more , but it removes all the fluff and gets to the original point , which was , rather than to make engines cheaper , to stop teams from using qualifying spec engines , which was extra stupidly expensive .
Policing 3 race engines is going to be stupidly complicated , and , on a basic level , only adds another artificial variable to the mix , and nothing more .

At least we've got slicks back .

Thanks FIA that exactly what I wanted to improve the show..









And if you didnt realise I was being sarcastic!

I would leave them free to run as light as they like in qualifying, but not allow any changes other than fuelling up between qualifying and the race.

To eliminate crafty tricks like using a qualifying set up in the first qualifying to set afast tome and then switching to a slower race set up, I suppose this might mean a single qualifying session. Alternatively they could carry on with the current "fastest n go forward" rules and put the eliminated cars straight into the lock-up. Teams who used a qualifying set up would run the risk that if they fouled up they would have to race with it.