After eight seasons, Formula 1 has returned to get its hands on the qualifying format. In 2022 a weight change was made, which will not impact on the definition of the starting grid, but on the tires that the drivers will mount at the start of the race. In fact, the rule that on Sunday required drivers to mount on the starting grid of the Grand Prix the set of tires that the previous day had been used to pass the cut of the Q2 session has been abolished.
The decision was made in the last session of the Strategy Advisory Committee, and will enter the new sporting regulations to be in force at the start of the 2022 season.
After being introduced in 2014, the rule that imposed the constraint of the tires used in Q2 at the start of the race has over the years become a tool to grant a further advantage to the best performing single-seaters.
There were actually different strategies at the start of the race, but usually the top teams have always been aligned in their choices. In addition, the old rule has often penalized those riders who managed to enter Q3 by mounting soft tires, then finding themselves starting the Grand Prix from the fourth or fifth row with a soft compound, while behind them the drivers who had failed in qualifying to enter the top-10 they could shoot with medium or hard tires, putting themselves in an advantageous position on the strategic front.
The curiosity will be to verify if thanks to the new regulation we will see different strategies or not. In the first races it could be like this, since the teams do not yet have a thorough knowledge of the new generation of 18-inch tires, but in the future the know-how could converge in one direction, and you could watch the race without differences on the strategic front. . The answer, as always, will be given by the track.
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