The new qualifying format introduced this year, with both sessions taking place one immediately after the other, on Saturday afternoon, has not exactly met with universal approval. In fact, to put it bluntly, it is regarded by many as rather boring and far too long.
The FIA has today announced that the World Motor Sport Council has agreed to the following minor changes to the format:
The pre-qualifying session will begin at 13.00 local time (instead of 14.00) while qualifying for the grid will begin at 14.00 local time, instead of following on immediately from the first part. This move has been prompted by demands from TV broadcasters who needed an accurate start time for the grid-deciding second part. It will be interesting to see what happens at circuits with a very long lap: imagine Spa-Francorchamps in the rain and there's a good chance that the first part of qualifying will not even have finished by 14.00. The new format comes into effect at the next round of the championship in Bahrain and the Saturday morning free practice session has also been brought forward an hour to accommodate the change.
Jordan GP - 24 Mar 2004