Analysis: Jury Still Out on New Qualifying Rules

The jury is still out on the new qualifying format in operation at this year's Formula One season after it was unveiled on Saturday at the Australian Grand Prix.

There were no major surprises when Michael Schumacher qualified fastest for the opening race of the season ahead of his Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello, but not everyone was impressed with the way the grid was decided.

Under new rules introduced this season, qualifying was decided by a single session in which each of the drivers completed two flying laps.

The first part determined the order in which they would try to qualify with the second part deciding their position on the grid. The drivers began the first part in the same order they finished the final race from last season, going out one at a time.

As soon as they had completed their first laps, they returned to the track in the order of slowest to fastest to decide their qualifying positions. The session took almost two hours to complete, longer than Sunday's race is expected to last, and left many people scratching their heads.

"I think it's a little bit confusing for the public," last year's Australian Grand Prix winner David Coulthard said. "In the first session, I heard people cheering when the cars were going fastest so I could imagine some Australians were thinking they'd won a qualifying bet and his mate was telling him that that's actually not qualifying."

Schumacher was among the first drivers to get on to the circuit for the first lap but was among the last to complete his proper qualifying lap and said he was bored by the long gap.

"For us too it is not that interesting. We just sit around and wait," he said.

Mixed Feelings

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart said his struggling team had been disadvantaged by the new format because they were last to go out for the opening lap then were first out for the second lap.

"I wasn't a supporter of this new qualifying format so it's ironic that Minardi was the first team caught out by it," Stoddart said. "We have mixed feelings about back-to-back qualifying sessions, simply because the two minutes between them allows no room for error, driver debriefing or for that matter, even for checking the car over."

McLaren boss Ron Dennis and BAR chief David Richards both said it was too early to judge the new format but agreed it should be changed if it proved unpopular.

"It's the first time we've tried this format so I think the important thing is to stick with it for the first three races then review it," Dennis said. "It's too premature to say whether it's a good or a bad format but if it doesn't work, let's change it."

Richards said he would prefer the first session to be open to allow all the cars to run at the same time.

"I think a free session to determine the running order would be better for the public," Richards said. "We really should listen to them and see what they think."