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New qualifying will put more pressure on drivers - Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo says new qualifying regulations will put more pressure on drivers to deliver their best laps quickly.

The FIA has confirmed a new qualifying format is set to be introduced in 2016 following unanimous agreement within the F1 Commission for an elimination-style session. With drivers dropping out at 90-second interviews after an initial short period, Ricciardo believes it increases the pressure on every lap.

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“I was just going over it a little bit before," Ricciardo told F1i. "Initial thoughts without looking in to ‘how’s that going to work or what if it rains’ - the ins and outs - it seems fine. I don’t know how much it’s going to change.

"In terms of qualifying we’ll still just bang around, I think what will be interesting is that after 90 seconds or whatever you’re just waiting for a message of ‘you're still in’ or ‘nah, you f***ed up, you’re out’! From that point of view it’s probably going to keep it exciting.

“I think it might put a little bit more pressure on us to execute the lap early in the session because I think after five minutes or something they’re going to start ticking them off. So you’ve got to not only execute the lap but set yourself up in traffic well, so there might be a little bit more precision involved rather than pick your moment in 15 minutes.

"So yeah, anything to make it a bit more interesting is cool. Again, it’s one of those ones which is going to be the same for everyone so it won’t be any more positive for some than others, we’ll all get used to it.”

When it was suggested the change could lead to a lack of excitement at the end of Q3, always limiting the battle to a two-way fight at best, Ricciardo replied: “I hadn’t thought about that.

"For sure those last few minutes are cool when you see everyone cross the line, so that is exciting. I guess it’s will this knockout thing be more exciting or will it not? That’s the question. Having two cars at the end … I don’t know … it could work both ways to be honest.”

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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.