Burning off the fuel slowly... to run fastF1`s new knockout qualifying may have been lauded from the pitwall, but in lounge rooms around the world, confusion reigned supreme as the top ten drove for pole position.
Why on earth - some viewers thought - did the field endlessly run around setting uncompetitive, but reasonably quick, lap times? The answer is complicated, and related to the fact that the final runners had to attack the session with race-level fuel.
There was no point going flat-out initially, because lap times would be quickest at the very end. A lot of laps were completed, however, because each lap qualified for an FIA `credit` - at Bahrain, 2.75 kilos per lap, to be re-added to the car at session`s end.
The idea, then, was to do as many laps as possible, but as slowly as possible, so as to actually use less than the 2.75 kilos per lap and get the advantage of a higher fuel load when the five lights go out.
But the FIA had imposed that each lap must be within 110 per cent of that drivers` ultimate best, prohibiting turtle-like slow driving.
FIA President Max Mosley, in Bahrain, denied that the system is too complicated to grasp. “And regarding the fuel,” said the Briton, “I don`t think that is the most important thing for the fans. What is important to them is that it is exciting, and that it is clear who is quick and who is not.”
Ferrari`s Ross Brawn, however, conceded that Mosley`s final point is not the case in Bahrain. “Until the race gets going on Sunday,” Brawn remarked, “no one knows where they are.”
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