In just a few hours, Formula 1 drivers will face perhaps the most high-pressure and, in some ways, most dangerous part of their entire race weekend when they take to the Hungaroring for today’s qualifying session. A session that may prove more critical than most.
But while drivers will be focused on their lap times during the qualifying hour, they will also be paying more attention than usual to the session timer too as it relentlessly counts down to the end of each of the three phases.Over the first half of the 2024 season, making it around an out-lap before the chequered flag signals the end of a session has become an increasingly complicated matter for teams and drivers. In recent rounds, many drivers have either had their most important laps of qualifying heavily compromised or been unable to complete them entirely due to the growing problem of cars queuing at the end of the pit lane.
But how did this phenomenon become such a headache for teams all across the pit lane and how much of a problem can they expect it to be this afternoon?
Before the maximum lap time
Due to the high speeds achieved by Formula 1 cars, there are few more dangerous situations than a car pushing at the limit suddenly coming across a slow car on the track. It’s a problem that is especially hazardous in qualifying, where drivers do not want to back off in any capacity in case their lap times and grid positions suffer for it.
However, that all too often led to some alarming scenes where drivers on flying laps would have to navigate through packs of slow, off-the-pace rivals through the final sector. The problem has been especially acute in the junior categories where fields are larger – 22 cars in Formula 2 and 30 in Formula 3. At Monza last year the F3 session was red-flagged due to a collision and several F2 drivers missed out on setting a flying lap at the end of qualifying while trying to find the optimal track position.
In a bid to avoid such scenes in Formula 1, FIA race director Niels Wittich opted to extend the maximum lap time rule enforced on in-laps in qualifying sessions to apply to all laps in qualifying at Monza. This appeared to successfully avoid any farcical situations in the session, but when the rules reverted to normal at the next round in Singapore, a major traffic jam at the final corner developed during qualifying. The stewards reprimanded Max Verstappen for impeding Yuki Tsunoda.
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The next time that teams arrived to a race weekend, in Suzuka the following week, they found that Wittich had applied the maximum lap time rule to ‘all’ laps in qualifying once again. The rule has remained in place ever since.
Pit lane procrastination
But as with anything in Formula 1, nothing is ever simple. The maximum lap time rule may have reduced dangerous situations out on track, but at the cost of moving the queuing in qualifying to the pit lane exit instead.
As drivers do not want to risk a penalty for driving too slowly or lose tyre temperature, it is now better to make space in the pit lane to the car ahead before crossing the pit exit line and joining the track. But front-loading the queue in this way has resulted in several instances of drivers missing out on starting flying laps before the session timer has expired, or packs of cars fighting to get across the line in time and missing out on clear tracks.
During the Austrian Grand Prix weekend, Red Bull driver Sergio Perez ended up in between the two Alpine cars of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly at the end of the sprint qualifying session due to his position in the pit lane. Due to how late Perez left the pit lane in the queue, he was forced to push to reach the timing line before the chequered flag, managing to do so with just seconds to spare but having to run directly behind Ocon for his final effort.
“I don’t know what Esteban was doing there,” Perez said after the session. “Apparently he had to go really slowly and I did my final lap within half a second of him and there was no chance.”
The following weekend at Silverstone, Oscar Piastri and Fernando Alonso both had their final qualifying laps compromised when they left the pit lane with under two minutes remaining at the end of Q3. Piastri was passed by Carlos Sainz Jnr and Alonso on his out-lap, before overtaking the Aston Martin driver at the penultimate corner. All three cars crossed the line with under ten seconds remaining before the chequered flag.
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Piastri spent his entire flying lap within the dirty air of Sainz’s Ferrari ahead. The McLaren driver later claimed that his final effort was “not really a lap” as a result of having to run behind the Ferrari. He did not improve on his personal best time with his final run, leaving him in fifth on the grid. The same was true for Alonso, who ended Q3 slowest of all in tenth, three-tenths slower than team mate Lance Stroll
Aston Martin’s situation in Silverstone was unique for them in that it was the only round of the season in which the team were located at the end of the pit lane, in the garages closest to pit exit, rather than their usual position towards the middle of the pit lane. During a late rush or when a session is red-flagged, there are also rules restricting when and how drivers can merge into the fast lane of the pit lane and join the queue, with Wittich clarifying the rules about how cars should merge in the event notes for the Monaco Grand Prix.
After Alonso’s final Q3 run in Silverstone was compromised by how late he got out onto the circuit, Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough pointed to their position in the pit lane and Alonso being forced to queue as having affected his opportunity to prepare for his final push lap.
“We had two cars in Q3, which was nice to have. We didn’t want to be first out, but we knew if we left it too late, then you could be trapped into people messing around at the pit lane exit. So with Lance, we didn’t want him to be second on track, but we had to go at that point or else we wouldn’t have got both cars out. So there was a bit of a penalty running so early in that last run in Q3 when the track was still improving.
“And then with Fernando, the way that everybody boxed up and ran nose-to-tail meant we couldn’t squeeze out. So, in hindsight, we should have gone earlier and we would’ve been sat in the debrief saying, ‘why were we the first two cars to go out?’. But the bottom line is we didn’t give him the opportunity to do a good out-lap and to start the lap before the clock finished. So we’ve got to do a better job there.”
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More bother in Budapest?
No doubt teams will be alert to the fact drivers have been increasingly caught out by the delta time and pit lane rules in recent races. But will they all avoid falling into the same trap this weekend?
The Hungaroring could see more trouble with drivers fighting over the opportunity to start a flying lap at the end of the session, partly because a good starting position is so valuable at this track.
With its many twisting turns and lack of overtaking opportunities, there are fewer chances for drivers to jump ahead of rivals on track if they find themselves pressed for time at the end of any of the three segments of qualifying. This is a particularly short lap, with just 4.3km covered in 76 seconds by the quickest cars.
This means, compared to the much longer Silverstone, there’s more chance of being caught by drivers on flying laps if you’re one of the last in the queue to leave the pit lane. This exact scenario befell Mercedes driver George Russell at the circuit last season, with him being unceremoniously eliminated from Q1 and forced to start the race from 18th place.
There’s also the question of how long drivers can and should be allowed to wait at the end of pit lane before they take to the circuit. Verstappen was investigated for ‘driving unnecessarily slowly’ at the pit exit during grand prix qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, but avoided a penalty. Drivers do, however, run the risk of attracting the stewards if they dawdle for too long at the exit of the pit lane.
With the field increasingly close at the front, having a crucial qualifying lap even slightly compromised could be the difference between several rows on the grid. And on a track such as the Hungaroring, notoriously one of the tougher tracks on the calendar for overtaking, it could prove an especially punishing afternoon for at least one driver and team.
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Jere (@jerejj)
20th July 2024, 8:47
Leaving the pit lanes earlier is the simple solution, if only teams bothered.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
20th July 2024, 11:54
Yes, waiting until the last minute to do your lap should be seen as the risk/reward trade-off that it is; increasingly teams seem to want all the reward with none of the risk.
bosyber (@bosyber)
20th July 2024, 14:42
Well, I thought in that sense McCullough’s point are quite reasonable and honest both with us and with themselves; yeah it is the obviously safe way out, but it is also a compromise to take by default.
Imagine that they would have been in a fight for pole where every tenth of a second may count, one may not be able to afford to take that easy way out, although you might have to so that you don’t risk not setting a time. Remains a compromise with how the tyres and track evolution works at the moment.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
20th July 2024, 9:07
I’m always surprised how much they are willing to risk a ruined lap in order to run on a track that’s had a few more cars rubber put down.
Makes sense if there’s a tow to be gained, but at most circuits that’s not a benefit.
notagrumpyfan
20th July 2024, 9:23
I quite like the strategy and stress of getting the quali run right.
Let the teams for it out; which should include overtaking in the pit-lane if the car in front is ‘procrastinating’.
notagrumpyfan
20th July 2024, 9:24
* Let the teams sort it out
MarcusAurelius (@marcusaurelius)
20th July 2024, 9:46
Drop the tire warmers. Then they’ll have to do some high speed laps to warm up the tires.
MichaelN
20th July 2024, 13:34
Yeah, but the F1 teams claim it’s ‘too dangerous’ despite Pirelli saying the tyres would be up to temperature about three quarters of the way through a properly paced out-lap.
The tyre warmers are a big waste, and a perfect example of F1 being too obsessed with itself. Other series do just fine without them.
Johns
20th July 2024, 13:43
But the tires barely last a lap of qualifying as it is. Forcing the tires to do an extra laps of warmup means the tires will give up during the real qualifying lap.
AndrewT (@andrewt)
20th July 2024, 12:42
I mentioned before, but I think a simple tweak to the current qualification system could ensure to avoid this issue.
Divide the 20 cars into two groups randomly or based on whatever criteria.
Q1a: 10 cars of Group-A roll out for 15 minutes, P1-P5 advance into Q2, P6-P10 are eliminated.
Q1b: 10 cars of Group-B roll out for 15 minutes, P1-P5 advance into Q2, P6-P10 are eliminated.
Q2: 5-5 cars arriving from the group stage roll out for 15 minutes and decide P1 – P10.
P11, P13, P15, P17 and P19 are coming from the group with the faster P1 time, P12, P14, P16, P18 and P20 from the other.
Pros:
Only 10 cars on track at any given time.
Minimal change to a proven qualification format.
Group “membership” doesn’t affect chances compared to the other group, one only has to be quick in his own group. (If Q1a is dry and Q1b is wet, top 5 positions would matter in each group, not the actual lap time, so no harm done.)
Cons:
Top 5 cars of Group-A have to sit out the 15 minutes of Q1b possibly losing momentum and feel of track evolution.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
20th July 2024, 13:01
Any format that needs to be explained to viewers with more than 2-3 lines of text is too complicated.
Plus a group system introduced the element of unfairness with changeable conditions where one group may have a dry track with the 2nd getting affected by rain which then impacts the starting order in an unfair way given how the same conditions weren’t available to everyone.
The current format at least allows for everyone to be on track at the same time in Q1 which therefore allows everyone to have a shot in the same conditions. It’s fairer than things like groups or the awful single car format we suffered through for 3 years 20 years back.
Current format is fine as is so there’s no need to introduce anything more complicated.
AndrewT (@andrewt)
20th July 2024, 14:17
@roger-ayles Thank you for the reply, I see your points.
I might have tried to clarify it more complex than it is, on the other hand, the complexity level should reflect the status of the sport, and not necessarily the Drive To Survive generation viewers.
I also tried to explain above how weather would not affect the outcome, as top5 _positions_ from each group would advance to the next stage, regardless of quicker _times_ set by one group in the dry and slower times set by the other group in the wet.
I think that’s exactly the issue with the current format, that everyone is on the track at the same time, and meanwhile it is managable on certain tracks, it most certainly is not on others.
Single lap format is only a bad memory thankfully.
If you think about the current format at its best, it really shines, and during the recent seasons qualy proved to be much more exciting than the race itself. But when teams and drivers are trying to exploit the grey zones and limits of the format, and the FIA has to introduce details like minimum lap time between SC lines, inside and outside lane positioning, and you cannot overheat your softs on the outlap so it takes like a minute to exit the pitlane, I don’t think that’s ideal and there’s room for improvement.
MichaelN
20th July 2024, 13:38
There’s plenty of time to do laps. The teams just need to stop out-thinking themselves.
As we’ve seen countless times, the idea that being last on track is always a benefit is simply not true. For all their clever tech, the teams cannot get a minute by minute track conditions forecast. It’s not possible. They just all resort to that late lap default to avoid awkward questions about their strategy. It’s the classic ‘buying IBM’ reasoning.
notagrumpyfan
20th July 2024, 13:59
Why solve a non-existing, or self-inflicted, problem with a whole new qualifying structure?
I prefer the current structure and sometimes see teams/drivers shoot themselves in the foot.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
20th July 2024, 12:54
If they see the cars driving slowly on out/in laps as an issue then all they need to do is have Pirelli make better tires that are less temperature sensitive, have a wider operating window & allow for lower minimum pressures.
The reason they have to drive as slowly as they do on out laps now is because of how thermally sensitive the Pirelli tires are. You drive that little bit faster on the out lap & your starting the lap with not only temperatures but also pressures higher than you want which not only means you lack grip but also start to see degredation before the end of the lap.
And same with in laps, They don’t want to take too much more out the tires just in-case they need that set in the GP.
You go back a few years & especially look at qualifying sessions before the Pirelli era & yes they weren’t pushing flat out on the out/in laps but with better tires & lower starting pressures they weren’t having to drive anywhere near as slowly as they have to now.
It’s just another unintended consequence of the push to put the show above the sport with artificially high degredation that has led to a decade of rubbish tires.
SteveP
20th July 2024, 14:21
Also available on request: The moon on a stick
Nick T.
20th July 2024, 12:59
We’ll see make sure Alonso doesn’t get in any laps again likely. These teams are idiotic in how they run their quali laps. Tire prep and a clear track is critical, but they’re compromise both for .1% track improvement. It’s ridiculous.
Nick T.
20th July 2024, 13:56
The engineers’ lack of common sense never fails to surprise me. Let’s see how many teams cost their driver crucial tire prep and a clear track by releasing them so late they’re all racing to make the line and find a spot in exchange for .1% track improvement. Following the pattern, AM will do it to FA, Ferrari will do it one of their drivers and McLaren might do it to Piastri. I notice RBR seems to avoid that every time, which is no surprise as they seem to have their act together. Mercedes typically also play it safer.