Strategy rethink with no refueling

Extending the new rule that cars must be sequestered in garages between qualifying and the race, another proposal is to ban refueling after the Saturday qualifying session. Before the race, teams can only carry out permitted alterations to the cars under strict supervision and adding no refueling to the rule means a strategy re-think will have to be made.

Teams run qualifying with light fuel loads to keep the weight down but now a decision will have to be made on which is the best option -- to run light and get a better qualifying time, but have to stop early in the race for fuel; or run heavy in qualifying, risking a lower grid position but gaining more time in the race before having to refuel.

"What will happen is that you will get some very interesting strategies going on," said FIA president Max Mosley. "There will be the dilemma of 'do I want to be fast in qualifying and make an early pitstop or not.'"

If the no refueling change is accepted, the proposed 15 minute warm up session before the race will be scrapped. A provisional race weekend schedule has been drawn up: the first Friday session is designated for teams that opted for Friday testing (Minardi, Jordan and Renault) and will run for two hours, starting 8.30am.

First free practice will commence at 11am, for one hour, and the Friday qualifying session will start at 2pm. All teams will have the standard hour, each driver permitted one flying lap to set a time, plus the in and out laps. For the first race, the Driver's standings from last year will dictate the running order.

On Saturday, the previous schedule for practice is unchanged; two 45 minutes sessions, the first at 9am and a thirty-minute break between the two. A15 minute warm-up session will precede the Saturday qualifying session, which will commence at 2pm, again with each driver having one flying lap. The running order will be dictated by the Friday qualifying session, the driver with the slowest time starting first.