F1 team bosses 'block trial of qualifying races' in 2020

40

It seems that there will be no experiments with qualifying races in 2020, after teams opposed the current initiative put forward by Formula 1 bosses.

F1 owners Liberty Media had hoped to try out the new format at three races next season. Paul Ricard, Spa and Sochi were believed to be the favourites to give the new look to the weekend a trial run, after Ferrari strongly opposed trying out the idea at Monza.

The plan was to replace the current qualifying format of three rounds of speed trials with a short qualifying race on Saturday afternoon. Drivers would line up for the start of qualifying in reverse order of the championship standings.

But the idea was strongly criticised by drivers, with Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel both against the proposal.

Hamilton and Vettel rubbish 'bullshit' reverse-grid idea

And teams also had concerns, because of the possibility of damage to the race car in the Saturday competition, as well as the additional costs associated with the necessity to have extra spare parts available.

Questions about the impact on tyre allocations and power unit longevity had also been raised by team bosses such as Racing Point's Otmar Szafnauer.

Now it seems that their concerns have carried the day and that F1 has had to drop the proposals for 2020 - for now, at least.

RaceFans.net reports that the proposals failed to achieve the unanimous approval from the ten team representatives needed to rush in the proposals next season.

The plan was discussed at a meeting between teams, F1 representatives and officials from the FIA, the sport's governing body, on Wednesday in Paris.

It's understood that a formal vote was not conducted, as it was already clear that there was considerable opposition among the team principals to the idea.

Previously, F1 sporting director Ross Brawn had confidently indicated that he had all 10 teams on board with the suggestions. However when it came down to it, it seems that at least one was ready to veto the idea..

However that's not necessarily the end of the matter, as further meetings of the various parties will take place before the start of next season and the experiments could be included in the 2020 rules if team bosses can be won round prior to March.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.