Power boost in qualifying

[Kiwi3]

What does everyone think about the power boost in qualifying thing as used in Sepang?

For me it is Mickey Mouse, qualifying was fine as it was, and if it ain't broke don't fix it!

If SUI in NZL are genuinely quick I'd rather see them racing up front, not messed up by this interference with meritocracy. Mind you from Taupo onwards perhaps all teams will use it for the feature, meaning nobody will actually gain, except the likes of Lebanon or might sometimes use it to get an artificially strong grid position for the Sprint.

[Mak]

Makes it all a bit of a lottery, and takes a bit away from what should be about drivers talent, reresenting there country..

[diabloA1]

I personally am not against it. I think it adds another dimension to qualifying. I don't think it takes away driver talent. In fact it adds more pressure. Because he cannot afford to screw up the run that he has powerboost on.

It's still a team effort

[jackschmidt]

I think it's about the dumbest thing I've come across in recent times in motorsport. Much of the grid is settled based not on the driver's ability to put in his best lap, but by putting in a lap time that cannot be sustained in anyway. Furthermore, even if you're happen to have the best lap time without the power boost, you can be penalized grid position-wise if everyone runs the power boost laps thereby putting you way back.

Qualifying is about qualifying for the race based on the pace you put together, not fake super laps and certainly not when you did not use yours and everyone uses theirs.

The only way I will agree to this stupid power boost lap is if you can have one power boost lap for sprint qualifying and one for feature qualifying. That way, you get a fair shot at matching those powerboost lap and not rue at what could have been if you were lucky enough to use it on the session everyone else did.

At the end of the day, we don't need it. The qualifying system isn't broken, so why add something like this? To mix up the grid? Thanks a lot. Tell that to guys like Loic who are bloody quick but get to deal with traffic because of not having that stupid button ready in quali.

[diabloA1]

I feel that so long as the rules are the same for everyone it is fair game. A1GP (even in F1 mind you) is not just about the driver, it is a lot to do with team work. The fastest qualifying is not, never was and will never will be down solely to the 'quickest' driver. It never is a 'one man' show and never is in a single make series like A1GP (or even in F1)

The quickest lap is achieved by the car with the best engineer, mechanics, on freshest tyres, deployed during the very narrow time period when the track is grippiest with no traffic and of course driven by the best driver.

All teams know when this window of opportunity would be. The question then is do they use it for the quicker Sprint or Feature quali session. I do agree with your suggestion that Powerboost be offered for both Sprint and Feature quali attempts. However that would take out more of the 'joker' card unpredictability. I think it would better to just discard powerboost entirely then having one for Sprint and another for Feature as it is teams already only give their best for only 2 out of the 4 quali sessions - one for sprint the other for Feature quali.

I don't think joker powerboost takes away driver skill in any way. If anything more would be needed because the braking points would shift just for that lap. Luck has nothing to do with it. No driver or team is ever always lucky(or unlucky) during a race weekend anyway. Consistency is always the key to winning a championship. Good luck is just icing on the cake.

What I do not like is a reverse grid system employed is some series as it clearly takes away the hard work of a team as you are 'penalized' for being quick. Joker powerboost to me at least is different because you have the same opportunity as the other guy. Just requires more consideration of strategy which I like because it demands more of teamwork which is a trait of A1GP that I really like.

[Kiwi3]

I think A1GP should use us for focus group research...!

[jackschmidt]

Originally Posted by diabloA1

I feel that so long as the rules are the same for everyone it is fair game. A1GP (even in F1 mind you) is not just about the driver, it is a lot to do with team work. The fastest qualifying is not, never was and will never will be down solely to the 'quickest' driver. It never is a 'one man' show and never is in a single make series like A1GP (or even in F1)

The quickest lap is achieved by the car with the best engineer, mechanics, on freshest tyres, deployed during the very narrow time period when the track is grippiest with no traffic and of course driven by the best driver.

All teams know when this window of opportunity would be. The question then is do they use it for the quicker Sprint or Feature quali session. I do agree with your suggestion that Powerboost be offered for both Sprint and Feature quali attempts. However that would take out more of the 'joker' card unpredictability. I think it would better to just discard powerboost entirely then having one for Sprint and another for Feature as it is teams already only give their best for only 2 out of the 4 quali sessions - one for sprint the other for Feature quali.

I don't think joker powerboost takes away driver skill in any way. If anything more would be needed because the braking points would shift just for that lap. Luck has nothing to do with it. No driver or team is ever always lucky(or unlucky) during a race weekend anyway. Consistency is always the key to winning a championship. Good luck is just icing on the cake.

In some respect, same rules for everyone would imply fair game. And in motorsport, it is never really a one man show. But you have to qualify for two races and when you use that power boost lap has huge repercussions when used at the wrong time. When is that wrong time? If you happen to have a crystal ball and figure when everyone else is using it. There is no strategy in that, only luck. And team strategy won't make you any better at guessing when to use it. Neel and Loic probably regret using that lap on the Sprint Q2. Because even though they got the positions, the loss is too great in the feature. Perhaps if everyone decided to use it in the last session I would not feel aggrieved by such a quirky rule. Ben Edwards said on the feature race telecast that Loic would have 'some pride' in knowing he was the quickest non-power boost lap, but that's pretty much worthless. Where was he in the feature? Does that 'pride' really matter when you know where you ought to be if all the lap times were normal?

Yes, the best laps were done with optimum tyre, track grip, driver input, car settings as well as good team tactics, but look at A1GP's qualifying, they give teams two new tyre sets giving them a good shot at having fresh tyres for both feature and sprint. As for track grip factors and driver input, that is all within the team's power to control (outside freak red flag circumstances). Ultimately, they decide when to push out that car for qualifying and they have that chance to put in the most optimum lap at every session.

Power boost lap performance is not dependent on a team's effort but is always relative to all other teams. You use it on Q1 and nobody does for Q1 and Q2, then you are guaranteed to be handicapped on Q3 and Q4, even if you are the best driver with the best setup coming out at the best time. Simply because you lose that extra top speed. Is it your fault that all the other teams used it at the other session? Nope. It's called running out of luck.

Originally Posted by diabloA1

What I do not like is a reverse grid system employed is some series as it clearly takes away the hard work of a team as you are 'penalized' for being quick. Joker powerboost to me at least is different because you have the same opportunity as the other guy. Just requires more consideration of strategy which I like because it demands more of teamwork which is a trait of A1GP that I really like.

I never was really fond of the reverse grid order. I thought that was contrived to make things difficult for Schumi and that's about it. Let's not kid ourselves, the only reason the FIA changed the point system and qualifying format was because of Schumi.

I liked A1GP's qualifying system before, when they split up the qualifying to sprint and feature. This? This is just something to throw in there to shake up the field. Giving slower teams a fair shot? I'd say slower teams shouldn't be given this random luck card. You want points? Work harder. Get quicker. I treat this power boost lap as atrocious as WRC's "slow everyone down so Loeb will sweep the road" fiasco. It's stupid. It shouldn't be there.