D. Lee Jackson

Words and Music

Formula One Finally Shows Common Sense in China

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In case you’ve missed it, the powers that be in Formula One have finally come to their senses and have tossed out—for good, I hope—the ridiculous new qualifying format used at the first two races of the 2016 season. The BBC reported earlier this week that the 2015 format will be reinstated for this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix. The change back to the more sensible format wasn’t without a small bump, as FIA president Jean Todt and “supremo” Bernie Ecclestone allegedly tried to convince the teams to try yet another goofy format. Thankfully, they did not succeed.

Sometimes it seems like you have to take a sledgehammer to certain people’s heads to get their brains knocked back into a reasonable position. I’m glad to see that the Formula One teams finally found a large enough tool for the job.

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Formula One Hits The Reverse Gear on Qualifying Yet Again

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So much for common sense. Apparently, Formula One will not revert to the 2015 style of qualifying for the April 3rd race in Bahrain. Motorsport.com reports that the reversion didn’t receive the unanimous support required when it came down to voting time, saying that there was a “push back from Bernie Ecclestone and Jean Todt” against the change.

In short, the teams were in apparent agreement about ditching the terrible new qualifying format, but the people who run Formula One wouldn’t listen. Sounds about right.

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Formula One Chews on Qualifying Format, Spits It Out

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According to a post on Speedcafe.com, the disappointing new Formula One qualifying system used in the Australian Grand Prix has been given the boot. The system was intended to encourage more drivers to take to the track, but instead resulted in a whole lot of no driving going on.

Speedcafe.com says F1 will revert to the 2015 qualifying format beginning with the next race, scheduled for the weekend of April 3rd in Bahrain. Good news indeed.

It’s going to be fun for Open-Wheel Racing fans on that weekend, with the IndyCar Phoenix Grand Prix running on the Phoenix International Raceway oval on Saturday night (April 2nd). I just hope my wife doesn’t schedule anything for us to do on that day. 😀

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Formula One Is Eating Itself With New Qualifying Format

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At times, I will write about one of my passions—open wheel racing. I love watching the rocketships of IndyCar and the high-tech machines of Formula One.

The latter has me tremendously irked at the moment, as it has many other people.

The sport’s governing body implemented a new qualifying system for this year. I won’t bore you with the details, but I will say this after having watched the first running of it today: it SUCKS.

Formula One, here’s my advice as a consumer of your product—go back to the previous system, or at least let flying laps count after the 90-second-counter runs out!

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Please feel free to use the Contact page. Thanks for reading!