Max Verstappen & Co. To Face Experimental Qualifying Shake Up in Upcoming 2023 F1 Season

Qualifying in F1 has always been an exciting part of the race weekend. Still, it does not attract as much attention as the Grand Prix on Sundays. Thus, Formula 1 and the FIA have always tried to mix things up with the qualifying formats for spicing things up. Over the years, there have been several qualifying formats used before the sport settled on the current knockout qualifying format. Although, in the upcoming 2023 season, another revision to this format will be tested as an experiment.

According to The Race, F1 will be experimenting with a “revised qualifying format” at 2 Grand Prix weekends in 2023. While these 2 races are not yet known, the details about the revision to the format are.

At these trial weekends, the qualifying will run in the traditional Q1, Q2, and Q3 sessions format. But, there will be a change in the types of tire compounds that can be used. For Q1, drivers must only use the hard compound, for Q2 the medium compound, and for Q3 the soft compound. And this may become a challenge for Max Verstappen and Co. as they might find it hard to warm-up the tires.

Though, the only exception to this rule is if any of the qualifying sessions are declared wet by race control, teams can use any compound. While this will be a trial of this revised format; the purpose is to evaluate the suitability of such a rule for future championships. So, if the FIA and Formula 1 feel this revised system works well, it may be implemented full time.

This revision will also see the number of tire sets available to each driver reduce. Currently, Pirelli provides 13 sets of slick tires for one race weekend that consists of 2 hard sets, 3 medium sets, and 8 soft sets.

This number will change to 11 slick tire sets with 3 hard sets, 4 medium sets, and 4 soft sets in this revised format. Thus, the intention is to cut down the number of tire sets for a weekend. Meanwhile, the intermediate and wet tire allocations remain the same at 4 and 3 sets, respectively.

Read More: How Does F1 Qualifying Work?

The implications of altering qualifying formats can be significant, as seen in the sprint qualifying system. It has changed the structure of the weekend completely and the impact of traditional qualifying became less at a Sprint weekend.

Are Sprints Here to Stay in F1?

There are several changes to the 2023 season both in a sporting and technical aspect. Besides the qualifying format experiment, the number of sprint races is also increasing for the new season. People have been feeling that Sprints are having too much of an impact on the Grand Prix. Though, F1 feels it adds more action to the weekend, boosting revenue.

2022 already saw a change for the Sprints, with the points systems changing. From only the Top 3 scoring points, the 3 sprint races last season saw the Top 8 finishers score points. The winner scored 8 points while the 8th place finisher got 1 point (in an 8,7,6,5,….,1 manner).

Though, for 2023 these 3 races have been increased to 6. Last year, Imola, Austria, and Brazil were the 3 tracks that hosted these Sprints. For this season, Austria and Brazil stay on as the sprint weekends with the addition of Azerbaijan, Belgium, Qatar, and the USA.

The COTA track for the US GP may be a great circuit to host a Sprint race, offering a lot of overtaking action. Meanwhile, Baku and Spa-Francorchamps may be interesting to watch. Still, these sprints will impact the starting grid for the race on Sunday, which has been a complaint from fans all over the world.

WATCH THIS STORY: What are F1 Sprint Races?

Time will tell whether this increased number of sprints can provide more entertainment or not. F1 may have to find a solution to retain these Sprints as well as maintain the value of the Traditional qualifying session. What do you feel about sprints on a Grand Prix weekend?