Pirelli tyres and Qualifying

[Peter]

Ever since the introduction of these brand new super-wear Pirelli tyres, most have been praising Pirelli for how much more interesting the show is now. But, few have seen how they are hurting qualifying, turning it from a battle for the fastest lap time to a chess game.

A common practice now in qualifying is to barely do any running, or sometimes none at all, to save your tyres for the race. I believe that it is somewhat unfair to those who do some running in qualifying, playing the game how it's supposed to be played, only to fall back in the races. More recently we've Sutil and Perez, both recently making it into Q3, and both finishing far back the order, while Buemi, knocked out in Q1, did little running, saved his tyres up for the race, and managed to stick the car 8th. Smart move.

One solution would be for the FIA to impose penalties for not running laps in qualifying, but I find that harsh, easy to get around anyway, and could pose a problem later on. Another solution would either be for Pirelli to bring more tyre compounds to a weekend to make qualifying qualifying again, or they could increase the durability of the current tyres. What i'd like to see is the opinions of my fellow users on this issue, so let the river flow...

[Jordan192]

The solution seems pretty simple to me, just give the Q3 runners an extra set (or two) of that weekend's option compound, to be handed back immediately afterwards.

You might still get the odd midfielder with a grid penalty not trying to make Q2, but everyone in Q2 would make a serious go of it as being in Q3 doesn't mean burning an extra set, and everyone in Q3 would go for it as they can't keep those tyres anyway.
You'd need to stop the top 10 starting on their qually tyres, but that might be an improvement in its own right.

[Peter]

The problem doesn't just reside with Q3. We now see drivers not really putting any effort in to get to Q2 either, which is why we sometimes see the Lotii getting in to Q2. A proper solution may be maybe to provide 2 extra sets of tyres to the drivers each weekend.

[Priceless]

That might have something to do with what I've read here in some other thread that Pirelli might be looking into making special tyres for qualifying... but anyway that'd be subject to a decision by the FIA.

Anyway, I agree with that - seeing cars just staying in the garage in a qualifying session is at least strange. I think what could be done to ease that would be having the special, very-high-grip tyres for qualifying just like back in the '80s, maybe with restrictions on the number of tyres used, say three sets for each car.

[WeirdKerr]

my solution would be that tyre allocation is per day not per weekend ie 3 sets of each compound for friday then these are all handed back, 3 sets of each on saturday which are handed back and then 2 sets of each compund for sunday....

[Salamander]

I really don't see the problem with an uninteresting qualifying session. It's much better than it was in years past, where qualifying was more interesting than the race. To use a metaphor, qualifying is like the starter course in a meal - nothing special, occasionally turns up a nice surprise - whereas the race is the main course. You don't want the starter overshadowing the main course, and you don't want qualifying overshadowing the race. It's the focus of the whole weekend. If drivers and teams figure that the best strategy in some situations is to do nothing, then kudos to them. It means we have drivers tearing through the field much more often than before. That means more overtaking, and isn't that what we're going for?

[DanielPT]

I really don't see the problem with an uninteresting qualifying session. It's much better than it was in years past, where qualifying was more interesting than the race. To use a metaphor, qualifying is like the starter course in a meal - nothing special, occasionally turns up a nice surprise - whereas the race is the main course. You don't want the starter overshadowing the main course, and you don't want qualifying overshadowing the race. It's the focus of the whole weekend. If drivers and teams figure that the best strategy in some situations is to do nothing, then kudos to them. It means we have drivers tearing through the field much more often than before. That means more overtaking, and isn't that what we're going for?

It is a valid point. Nevertheless it would be terrible that people forsake qualifying completely. I always enjoyed seeing a battle for the fastest lap, fighting to extract those last tenths that put you on pole. It is true that you don't want the starter to overshadow the main course, but if the main curse ends up bad (read boring) and the starter makes it, you don't leave the table feeling cheated (don't forget that in this restaurant, you could scream, kick and cry for a complaint book but the manager just doesn't give a damn. Also, there wouldn't exist a complaint book...). Qualifying always made part of the GP weekend and, despite totally forgotten it gave us some magic moments and highly entertainment races in case of mixed qualifying day weather conditions. For all this I agree with WeirdKerr proposal. Despite reducing strategy variables for the race, it would bring back Saturday true propose.

[Myrvold]

I really don't see the problem with an uninteresting qualifying session. It's much better than it was in years past, where qualifying was more interesting than the race. To use a metaphor, qualifying is like the starter course in a meal - nothing special, occasionally turns up a nice surprise - whereas the race is the main course. You don't want the starter overshadowing the main course, and you don't want qualifying overshadowing the race. It's the focus of the whole weekend. If drivers and teams figure that the best strategy in some situations is to do nothing, then kudos to them. It means we have drivers tearing through the field much more often than before. That means more overtaking, and isn't that what we're going for?

Oh, SU! Now I'm hungry!

[Aerospeed]

Here's an idea: Remove the "must start on the tyres you used in Q3" rule. It's stupid.