Breaking news
Formula 1
New qualifying system will shake up F1 grids - Symonds
Williams chief technical officer Pat Symonds says that the elimination F1 qualifying format proposed for 2016 will not necessarily improve the show on Saturday, but it will shake up the grid for Sunday.

Adam Cooper
Edited: Feb 24, 2016, 4:26 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber







Symonds stressed that all teams have a lot of work to do by Melbourne if the system is confirmed for the first race.
Read Also:
- FIA confirms new F1 qualifying system
"It's going to be quite tough," he said. "We certainly need to spend a lot more time thinking about it.
"I don't think it's going to improve qualifying itself, in fact I think there's a danger qualifying might not be as exciting, it may not build up to that final crescendo.
"But what it has a good chance of doing is improving the race.
"It's quite a difficult situation, it's done at very short notice, we're not going to have a lot of time to get our thoughts together and optimise everything and write loads of software to help us optimise it.
"And so I think all of us are going to make mistakes, especially early on and that means there will be occasions when cars are out of position.
"We will see some of the quicker cars a bit further back, and we all know that's given us some great races in the past."
Tyre choices
Teams have already made their tyre selections for the early races, and Symonds admitted that those choices might have been different with the new system.
"This year we have more say in the selection of the tyres. We've already the nominations for the first few races, and we've done that without the knowledge that the qualifying procedure was going to change.
"I'm sure that as we analyse it we will say has we known this, we would have chosen differently, but the fact is we are in the same boat, so I don't think it's such a big deal.
"There's a lot of work to do in the next few weeks, not just for us but for FOM to redo the software that handles the timing systems and things like that. It's quite a tough call."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Rosberg: Mercedes "hasn't shown its cards yet"
Next article Honda: Reliability problems not sorted yet
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment

More from
Adam Cooper

RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024

Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team

Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility

More from
Williams

Williams has better cooling vests than anyone – Alex Albon
Formula 1
Formula 1
Williams has better cooling vests than anyone – Alex Albon

James Vowles explains request for review of F1 cost cap
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
James Vowles explains request for review of F1 cost cap
Latest news

Zane Smith fined $50,000 by NASCAR for ramming Carson Hocevar after Phoenix Cup race
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
15 min
Zane Smith fined $50,000 by NASCAR for ramming Carson Hocevar after Phoenix Cup race

FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
4 h
FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned

TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 4 h
TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return

Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
5 h
Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe




