Fuel Rule to Shake Up Race Strategies

Formula One's rulers threw another new ingredient into a revised Grand Prix mix today by telling teams to start races with whatever fuel was left in the tank after qualifying.

International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley told reporters that refuelling cars between the new single-lap qualifying session on Saturday and the race on Sunday would not be allowed.

The decision will revolutionise strategies, with teams having to factor in enough fuel in qualifying to last cars until at least the second lap of the race but possibly for considerably longer. To facilitate this, the regular Sunday morning warm-up session is likely to be cancelled.

"The warm-up on Sunday should disappear and that is now the subject of a vote of the Formula One commission by fax," said Mosley. "They (the drivers) will need to start the race with whatever fuel they finished the qualifying on."

Mosley said the main reason for the fuel restriction was one of safety forced on organisers by other changes introduced this season that prevent teams from altering the mechanical set-up after qualifying.

Drivers now have just one solo fast lap each to qualify, rather than a one hour open session, and the cars are then impounded under FIA supervision in 'parc ferme' from Saturday afternoon until Sunday.

The FIA feared that, in the search for maximum speed in qualifying, there was a risk of cars set up for a minimum fuel load having to start races in a dangerously heavy condition.

Desperate Trouble

"It's just much safer to approach the whole thing as, let's say, instead of a 60 lap race as a 63 lap race - the first three laps are the qualifying and then you do the 60 laps and there's just a bit of a gap in between," said Mosley.

Asked whether a team could take a sanction and refuel if they realised they had qualified without enough fuel to complete the opening lap, Mosley replied: "They are just in desperate trouble at the start of the race. They probably won't even make the formation lap.

"So what will happen is that you will get some very interesting strategies going on. There will be the dilemma of 'do I want to be fast in qualifying and make an early pitstop or whatever,'" he said.

"It will also be interesting because the person at the end of the qualifying session may well be watching the people earlier on to try and second guess what they are doing, particularly if it's his rival in the Championship.

"He might think 'he seems to have a lot of fuel, maybe I'd be better off getting ahead of him and trying to get in and out before he comes round.'"

Under the new rules, the fastest driver in Friday's single-lap qualifying goes last in the Saturday session that decides the race grid.

"It's going to be quite a significant 'down the pub' factor," said Mosley with a smile, referring to a favourite benchmark of how the sport will play with ordinary people arguing while watching television in the pub.

The FIA released a letter from technical head Charlie Whiting to all the teams laying out the changes to race weekends and the operation of parc ferme. It said teams would be allowed to remove wheels and bodywork to carry out engine, gearbox and safety checks under FIA supervision but no other work would be allowed unless specifically authorised.

From 8:00am on Sunday morning teams will be allowed to repair bona fide accident damage but the cars must also start the race with the same tyres and wheels used in qualifying.