Rating EVERY F1 qualifying format from WORST to BEST

F1 has seen plenty of different qualifying formats over its 73 year history, we rate them from best to worst in our latest F1-to-10!

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[gmwdim]

Don't forget pre-qualifying which used to be a thing when there were too many cars. The slowest teams had a Friday pre-qualifying session where the fastest drivers among them would be eligible to join Saturday's main qualifying, and the slowest drivers would be eliminated from the rest of the weekend.

[erqey]

The jeopardy in the early F1 qualifying format was the fact that drivers could die horribly at basically any point during the session

[nathanb]

I think we all know that elimination qualifying back in 2016 was the best. The drama and suspense of drivers getting knocked out whilst sat in the pitlane is unmatched

[Puzzle]

A few minor changes during the current qualifying format worth mentioning:

* Cars having a party mode got dropped.
* Starting the race on the tyre that you used during Q2 also got dropped

[flyingphoenix]

One-lap shootout quali will forever be my favorite. It really gave the drivers in lower teams the case to showcase their talents.

[gabehorn]

One lap shootouts at the end of Q3 would be great for TV also cause each lap can be shown in full not multiple flying laps at the same time

[melindam]

If I remember right, the 2 x 1 hour quali was 'killed off' by Senna, who sometimes didn't even bother to turn up for one of those days. While others did the whole Fru/Sat, he turned up for Sat, did a few laps and pocketed P1. 😊

[davidwood]

In the Australian Supercars (touring cars) series, we have about 1/3 of the races each year where we run a ~20 minute all-in qualifying session that sets the grid from 11-whatever, and then a real Top-10 Shootout. Each of the top 10 drivers from qual gets 1 lap. They go out in reverse order from the qual session (so 10th hits the track 1st, down to 1st hitting the track last).

100% on team Matt here, the Jeopardy is palpable when it's only a single lap, but there's also one thing you're possibly understimating. It's just one driver against the track. No traffic, no missing the gap you wanted to be in, no getting hurried along on your out-lap by someone else. It's just one driver, one car, versus the track. If you watch some of the shootout laps around Mt Panorama over the years, there's some of the best driving I've ever seen. Greg Murphy set the 'Lap of the Gods' in 2003, a record which stood for 18 years, and will probably be hailed forever as one of the best laps of any track by any driver in any car.

[robertoschirmer]

I absolutely loved that One-Lap-Shootout.
Maybe, because it was that time I really got into F1 and I didn't know the former formats. But I still think, this was better, than today's format, because it really shows, who's fast on point, when it is important...

You only get one shot to not miss your chance to blow...

[robertoschirmer]

Omg, I totally forgot this Elimination format. 😂
This is like the definition of "It's a good idea, if you don' t have (or consider) any of the information and circumstances, you have"

I really think, this COULD work properly, but not in our era. This could have worked up until the 90s, maybe in the 2000's, but not today.
Plus, as mentioned, you've got a properly working, good format already in usage... Never change a running system, except you've tested it a thousand times and know for sure, that the new system is better.

[stefanrhys]

I completely hate the idea of one shot qualifying. For me one of the best parts of qualifying is the first flying laps being set and then watching those 2 or 3 best drivers dig even deeper and push their car to the literal limits of the track in order to find more time in hopes of securing or stealing pole

[veryfastride]

My Rating of your formats to rank/explain stuff. The old system from a platform which we can't speak the name with an appr. 5 minutes video explaining certain aspect of F1: 10/10 - It was to the point, had some clever humour and memes all around. I watched every second of it. It was great . . . the best you could find on Youtube. The race best tweets - from a platform which we can't speak the name: 9/10. It had me in stitches most of the time. Only the race roundup at the I would skip.

Now the NEW race/tweet review.: 8/10. Not bad, great insight, tweets again, but I'm not sure why, I'm can miss an episode and be ok with it.
The NEW ranking stuff. (drivers, livery, qualy format etc.) 6/10. I noticed I am fast forwarding to the results. OMG, I'm so sorry. I know, I shouldn't.

Please go back to do some short 5 minutes segments that we come to really love from you guys. I really miss that. They were entertaining, educating and addicting.

Still, you're great and I i know you have something up your sleeve we haven't seen yet. Cheers!

[FeintMotion]

The initial 2005 season format wasn't just the two laps added together. The Saturday session was traditional qual fuel level running, then the Sunday session was run with the fuel levels at whatever the team intended to start the race with to complete their first stint. Thus a driver especially good at bonafide qualifying would be rewarded with a buffer between them and their principal rivals. By having outdone them a disproportionate amount relative to the strength of the cars, they now had some bonus time in the pocket to sneak additional race fuel into the Sunday session. Kimi and Jarno got the most out of this and both tended to run quite long before their first stop on the strength of their low fuel laps from Saturday. This was the source of a lot of Kimi's miraculous comeback drives after his scheduled Merc engine penalties and served to forge the Trulli Train legend.

[vmstranger]

Haven't had a chance to fully watch the video yet, but I think the one lap shootout should be brought back for Monaco. Just that one race.

[jgellingson]

I like the idea of of a Q3 one lap shootout. Combines the best qualifying formats, IMO, into one. My favorite qualifying format was the one lap shootout.

[ChrisCroft]

One thing I would like to see, similar to Indycar is a special timing line before pit entry for qualifying so you don’t have slow cars on a cool down lap getting in the way. Once they complete there lap they can entry the pits straight away.

[TeeOneDee]

I do think that the Q1, Q2 then Q3 format is the best we've had. A single lap shootout Q3 would be awesome, maybe with the order being dictated by the results of Q2 in reverse, meaning that where you finish in Q2 impacts how good a chance you have I'm your final lap. Only issue I see would be changing weather conditions, you might get screwed out of a pole position because of the weather, that'd be painful for the drivers but would also cause a spectacle for the viewers if the usual top 3 had poor laps because they couldn't set a quick time.

[buildcashflow]

Having been an F1 fan since the 90s and watching it now just as intently as I did then, I have to say qualifying today is easily the best. It’s so good I actually don’t remember the other formats in the early 2000s.

The 90s… well I was a teen age kid so it’s understandable why I don’t remember it, I should remember something from when I was finishing college and doing engineering so I could potentially go and be an F1 engineer (didn’t happen I went into business after school)

[turbo_brian]

I think you should have split out the different nuances of the current format. When refueling was a thing and starting the race on your qualifying fuel load was peak. A slower car could go for pole and it brought in more strategy to the race.

[snitzel]

quali should be:
q1 5 slowest cars eliminated 15mins
q2 next 5 slowest cars eliminated 15mins
q3 1 lap shootout order based on reverse top 10 of q2.
hence top 10 pushing hard in q2. I think this will generate exciting quali incoming rain may make drivers aim for 10th in q2 to try and get lap in q3 early. just a thought.