Format of a Race weekend - Qualifying

 

Following the conclusion of the practice sessions, Qualifying announces its arrival on Saturdays. It is occasionally held on a Friday in case of sprint weekends, but we’ll delve into that later. In this particular article, I want to properly explain to you the way Qualifying works in Formula 1.

Qualifying for the British Grand Prix in 2020 was my first glimpse of an F1 weekend and I mean it when I didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. Now, I’ve fortunately worked everything out and hope I can explain it to you.

Okay, so the purpose of Qualifying is to set the grid order for the grand spectacle on Sundays – the Gand Prix. Qualifying is where the fast cars are separated from the slow and the great drivers from the good. A car’s Qualifying pace is total dependent on how it performs over the course of a single lap. That, in turn, depends upon how the team has set the car up in the practice sessions (see the reference?). Another important thing to note about Quali is that the minute a car leaves the team’s garage to take part in the session, the team cannot make any changes to its setup other than the angle of its front wing which has an effect on the amount of downforce the car creates.

Downforce is the force which pushes the car into the pavement leading to superior cornering speeds at the cost of straight-line pace. Downforce is another thing which teams play around with in the practice sessions to find the perfect balance between straight-line and cornering speeds.

So, that’s all for the Pre-Quali knowledge. Now, lets get into the real deal. Formula 1’s Qualifying stage of the weekend is divided into three parts: Q1 (Qualifying 1), Q2 (Qualifying 2) and Q3 (Qualifying 3). In Q1 and Q2, the slowest 5 drivers are eliminated from Qualifying until the fastest 10 go for the fastest lap of the session in Q3. So, all 20 drivers compete in Q1. These are then reduced to 15 for Q2, and the Q3 inherits the fastest 10.

The drivers in Q3 then fight it out for the ‘Pole Position’ which is a fancy but attractive way of saying 1^st. Now, let it be clear that the results of Qualifying decide only and only the starting grid. The position of drivers following the conclusion of Qualifying can only be influenced by penalties awarded by the stewards or ‘Race Control’ for any infringement of rules.

Another thing to keep in mind while watching Qualifying is that a driver – if he starts his attempt at a lap (called a ‘Flying Lap’) before the session concludes by even the smallest of margins – is legally permitted to complete his flying lap attempt. The new Quali rules have also placed restrictions on the usage of tires during the session, citing that teams are mandated to use the most durable hard compound tires for Q1, the medium compound for Q2, and the fastest soft compound tires for Q3.

Let me just quickly explain what all the colours on the bar displayed for drivers on flying laps (or hotlaps) mean. Any circuit of track is divided into portions called as sectors in the racing world. Some tracks such as the Nurburgring in Germany can have multiple sectors while some such as the NASCAR Oval may not have any at all. However, it is standard in F1 that all the circuits have 3 sectors. The colour of the light displayed for a particular sector represents the driver’s performance in the sector. A green light indicates that a driver has gone faster through that sector than he has on previous attempts, a yellow light mean that he has gone either identical to his personal best time for that sector or has one slower. A purple coloured sector will inform you that a particular driver has gone through the respective sector faster than anyone else has in that session.

That, in my opinion, is all you need to know to enjoy a great Formula 1 Quali session and I hope you have blast!

Photo by Bob Ronald: https://www.pexels.com/photo/time-lapse-photography-of-green-and-white-racing-vehicle-on-lane-14578740/