The new format with two qualifying sessions will make its debut in the next Formula 1 world championship, over the weekend in Baku. According to information collected by Motorsport.com, at the Formula 1 Commission meeting scheduled for next Tuesday, the representatives of the team, FIA and Liberty Media will formally confirm a decision already taken in recent days with their vote.
The format of the weekend will not change on Friday, proposing the usual program foreseen for weekends with the sprint race, namely the free practice session in the morning and the qualifying session in the afternoon. The first difference compared to the ‘Sprint’ weekends will be related to the validity of the results, since the first qualifying will define the starting grid for the Grand Prix scheduled for Sunday afternoon at the Baku City Circuit.
The biggest change is linked to the Saturday format. Instead of the second free practice session, (a session criticized by many F1 paddock insiders given the fact that it can only be dedicated to long-runs but with single-seaters already in parc fermé) there will be an unprecedented qualifying session, which will define the starting grid for the afternoon sprint race. The details regarding the format of the session are not yet known, but it will not be (as assumed until a few days ago) a single-lap qualifying. The most likely possibility is that of three stages, as in the traditional qualification, but with a shorter duration for Q1, Q2 and Q3.
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