Full Throttle

This headline for one: “F1 running out of time to change qualifying.” Puzzling because the FIAsco has never felt the need to place a time clock on any qualifying changes. Post season, pre-season, mid-season, it’s all fair game for Bernie’s and Max’s boys. They’ve had more qual changes at more times than Baskin Robbins has flavors.

London, England - Formula 1 is running out of time to make significant changes to the qualifying format for next year.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis said at the Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday (August 21) it was now “virtually impossible” for the sport to switch from qualifying with race fuel on board to low fuel because of design constraints.

He added: “We have missed the point at which we could instruct our designers to design a car that would have the range capability that would be the result of qualifying with low fuel.”

WHAT. Is. Dennis. Smoking!

Maybe I’ve missed something along the way. Since when has an F1 car’s design changed dependent on a full or nearly empty fuel tank? Maybe I’m stupid. Or maybe Dennis is. Or maybe the whole bunch of them are, all the way from the corporate offices to the nose bleed seats outside turn 6.

Here’s a clue: Mandate a fuel tank size, mandate it be filled to overflowing for all qualifying attempts, and give them one out lap, two qual laps in succession, and one in lap. Qualifying order would be by luck of the draw. Put the car numbers in Bernie’s left shoe and let the crying, whining prima donnas pull their poison out of that $1000 dollar piece of leather and be done with it! (Wonder if that leather is cowhide? Or snakeskin? Probably something exotic and endangered. Better make that a $10,000 piece of leather.)

Formula One, Auto Racing, Sports