F1 | first qualifying with experimental format to be held at Imola

F1 | first qualifying with experimental format to be held at Imola | 2023 Emilia Romagna GP. Qualifying with experimental format to be held at Imola.

The qualifying session for the Imola weekend (scheduled for 20 May) will be held based on the new and experimental format, which involves the use of all Pirelli compounds approved over the weekend. The proposal, which dates back to 2022, imposes the use of the hard compound in the Q1 session, the medium tyres in Q2 and the soft tyres in Q3, with the goal of saving two sets of tires supplied for each driver over the weekend.

On an normal race weekend, the thirteen sets of tires assigned to each driver include two sets of hard, three medium and eight sets of soft. Under the experimental qualifying system, teams will get three sets of hards, four sets of mediums and four sets of softs. The plan is to have six sets of tires available for qualifying, and five to manage between free practice and the race on Sunday.

Liberty, the FIA, the teams and Pirelli (who agreed to this decision) want to verify how well this format can be used over two weekends during the 2023 Formula 1 campaign, and according to information collected by Motorsport.com in Bahrain, the first weekend will be the Emilia Romagna GP at the Imola circuit. The initiative is part of the package that aims to optimize material transport as much as possible, one of the sectors most under scrutiny in view of the ‘carbon neutral’ goal that Formula 1 has set itself for 2030.

According to indications provided by an engineer, the teams will use one set of softs in the FP2 session, one in FP3 (in both cases for qualifying simulations) guaranteeing two sets for Q3. The teams that don’t make it through the Q2 cut will be able to count on two new sets of softs ahead of the race, an aspect that could represent an added value on some tracks.