Alonso slams F1's current qualifying format

Nov.27 (GMM) Fernando Alonso has issued a scathing assessment about Formula 1’s three-part current qualifying format.

When the Aston Martin driver won his titles for Renault almost two decades ago, the sport had moved from a traditional 60-minute, 12-lap format to one-by-one single-lap qualifying.

Both were formats that Alonso, now 42, enjoyed, but he now thinks that with the way Formula 1 has evolved since the current ‘knockout’-style qualifying was introduced, the format has become totally “obsolete”.

In Abu Dhabi for the 2023 season finale, he said qualifying is now excessively affected by track limits, minimum times for warm-up laps, and slow-moving traffic requiring a new flow of subsidiary rules.

“This format of qualifying is obsolete,” Alonso is quoted by the Spanish sports newspaper AS. “We cannot have this kind of stress.

“What used to be the best session of the weekend, when the cars are most alive, is now the worst session for everyone,” he insisted.

“Track limits, traffic, impeding, deleted laps, on and on. We are all happy when it is over now and it shouldn’t be like that.”