Towards a second qualifying session in Baku?

Casually, and without appearing to do so, Guenther Steiner dropped a little bomb at a press conference this Friday in Melbourne (Australia).

The main team of the stable Haas explained that discussions were underway for the organization of a second qualifying session during the next Azerbaijan Grand Prix, scheduled for April 28 to 30. As a reminder, Baku will host the first of six sprint races planned this year in Formula 1.

During the Portuguese Grand Prix of Moto GP which he attended, Formula 1 boss Stefano Domenicali surprised everyone by raising the possibility of completely eliminating Free Practice. According to the former boss of the Team Ferrari, these sessions “ interests engineers but not fans »

We then imagined that it was an announcement effect, or in any case a way of preparing the ground for future changes, much more than a real desire to get rid of the free sessions, so essential to pilots and engineers. The idea of ​​the FOM is above all to bring the stakes during each session, with the possibility of awarding points in EL. 

A qualification on Saturday morning?

And it seems that F1 is not very inclined to wait until 2024 to test a new format. In front of the press, Steiner raised the possibility that a 2nd qualifying session could be held in Baku. Which would have the advantage of uncorrelated the result of the Sprint and the Grand Prix grid. 

“There are ongoing discussions regarding a possible second qualifying session, confirmed Steiner. At the moment, we don't know how or if we will do it.

But imagining that we do it (…) we will have to evaluate whether a single free practice session, in this case EL1, would be enough or not to allow us to evolve the cars with correct adjustment and in complete safety. . »

The teams fear the high-stakes sessions within the walls of Baku. © DPPI

To put it simply, AUTOhebdo understands that there would still be a Free Practice 1 session on Friday morning, with qualifying for the Grand Prix organized on Friday afternoon. On Saturday, instead of the morning EL2, there would therefore be qualifying in a form that remains to be specified, with probably an individual time trial on a single attempt. It is difficult to imagine holding a full session with Q1-Q2-Q3 due to the regulated use of the engines over a season. 

This would have a double advantage in the eyes of the FOM. First, to limit yourself to a single free session and replace one with high-stakes qualifications, which is what Domenicali called for last week. Then above all to dissociate the result of the Sprint and the establishment of the Grand Prix grid, the drivers having admitted for two years that they were not really comfortable with the idea of ​​attacking during the Sprint, of afraid of losing everything for the Grand Prix in the event of a collision on Saturday. 

For their part, neither the FIA ​​nor the FOM have spoken publicly on the issue since Steiner spoke. As a reminder, in 2023, the promoter and the legislator agreed on the transition from 3 to 6 sprint races, after having increased in 2022 the number of points allocated to the winner and his main pursuers. 

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