Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRegulations

F1 set to revert to 2015 qualifying format

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The Chinese Grand Prix is set to see F1 revert to the 2015 qualifying system after a demand from the teams was accepted by the FIA.

FIA president Jean Todt and Bernie Ecclestone had not allowed the return of last year's format to be an option during a meeting in Bahrain on Sunday, with the teams instead told to analyse new proposals and return on Thursday with a clear direction.

However, the teams stood firm and unanimously signed a letter to both the FIA and Ecclestone demanding the 2015 format be reinstated following the negative response to the elimination-style qualifying introduced this year.

Following such a clear stance from the teams, the FIA has now agreed it would be pointless to pursue other options and the sport is set to revert to the 2015 format from next weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.

In order for that to happen, the change needs to go through the F1 Commission and receive approval - which should be a formality following unanimous agreement among the teams - and then be rubber-stamped by the FIA's World Motor Sport Council.

A full FIA statement was released, which states: "At the unanimous request of the teams in a letter received today, Jean Todt, President of the FIA, and Bernie Ecclestone, commercial rights holder representative, accepted, in the interests of the Championship, to submit a proposal to the F1 Commission and World Motor Sport Council to revert to the qualifying format in force in 2015.

"This proposal, if approved by the F1 governing bodies, will take effect as from the Chinese Grand Prix and will apply for the rest of the season.

"Jean Todt and Bernie Ecclestone welcomed the idea put forward by the teams to have a global assessment of the format of the weekend for 2017."

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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.