Because F1 just gets more and more ridiculous each day, it appears that the new elimination qualifying format might not take place until the Spanish Grand Prix, meaning the qualifying rules will change during the season.
The elimination qualifying has actually gone down rather well with fans but in a time where F1 is being urged to make things far less complicated, changing the rules midway through the season is going to be rather damn confusing.
F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone told The Independent that timing software won’t be sorted in time for elimination qualifying to be introduced in Melbourne.
“The new qualifying won’t happen because we can’t get everything together in time,” said Ecclestone. “It was going to come in at the start of this year but we are not going to be able to get all the software done in time.”
“So the qualifying changes will probably be in Spain. In Australia, it will be the old qualifying. All of the software has to be written so it’s not easy.”
Turns out Bernie actually wanted something even crazier in the hope of stopping Mercedes winning every race from pole making races more interesting.
“It’s not what I wanted in the end. All I’m trying to do is muddle up the grid so that the guy that is quickest in qualifying doesn’t sit on pole and disappear because why should he be slow in the race if he is quick in qualifying?”
Why couldn’t they have waited until 2017? Well that just would have been far too logical.