TALKING POINT TERRIBLE QUALIFYING
After the Australian Grand Prix debacle, the
powers that be ignored all and sundry by insisting that
the musical chairs qualifying would continue in Bahrain,
when it was very clear that the format was a disaster
with no room from improvement.
The warnings came from the fans, the drivers and
the teams whose engineers had simulated trillions of
scenarios on their computers and concluded that no
way the new system would deliver anything but a bore.
But the collective majority, aggrieved and in protest,
were ignored.
Roll on Bahrain and we were dished out another
huge anti-climax to what was once upon a time one of
the greatest spectacles in sport – Formula 1 qualifying.
There is a very serious problem when Toto Wolff,
boss of the Mercedes team whose drivers annexed
the front row at the desert venue, comes out after the
session and declares: “It was terrible…”
“Did you like it more? It’s unbelievable,” said
Mercedes motorsport director Toto Wolff, despite his
drivers taking first and second place on the starting grid
with Lewis Hamilton on pole ahead of Nico Rosberg.
“I think after Q1 (first qualifying session) and Q2 I
don’t see what you can like there,” added the Austrian.
“It’s very difficult to follow who is in and who is out. I
think we have a duty to simplify the sport rather than
add complexity.
“It doesn’t mix up the field in a way that would make
the race more entertaining. So I hope we can have
some reasonable discussions.”
After Melbourne’s edition Wolff summed it up as:
“Rubbish.”
McLaren’s Racing Director Eric Boullier said he
thought Bahrain’s qualifying had been worse than
Melbourne, particularly in the second phase. As far
as we are concerned, having only one set of tyres on
Q2 means you just do your lap and then you sit in the
garage which is a bit ridiculous.”