Qualifying Rule Changes Announced By FIA

The FIA have announced that they have changed the rules that govern driver in laps at the end of qualifying.  The change has been made after the last grand prix in malaysia which sore the two mclaren cars impede the final qualifying lap of Nick Heidfeld and Fernando Alonso.  This was deemed to be unfair and also extremely dangerous.

After completing their final qualifying lap the two Mclarens drove slowly back to the pit lane in the racing line of the track, this resulted in Heidfeld having to quickly alter his path to avoid a nasty accident.

“Our clarification to the teams and drivers will be that cars returning to the pits having completed their flying lap or laps will be required to do so within a time that we will set,” an FIA spokesman confirmed to Reuters.

“This could be approximately 120 percent of the normal time as we do to prevent drivers going very slowly to the grid (on the pre-race formation lap) to save fuel.”

This change will greatly improve safely but will mean that cars start with less fuel for the main race, we think the rule is a good addition as it ensures safety for all drivers and also prohibits drivers impeding each other. The new rules will come in to use during the next grand prix in Bahrain.