Wolff denounces new format: 'Doesn’t make sense, and doesn’t work’

F1 News

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff understands very little about the new format
22 July 2023 at 13:19
Last update 22 July 2023 at 14:27
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  • Kada Sarkozi
  • Editor

For Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, the new qualifying format has no added value, he reveals to Sky Sports. Teams now have to be extra economical with tyres, which means teams mostly drive on old tyres during practice sessions. As a result, teams do not know where they stand.

Formula 1 is experimenting with a new qualifying format this weekend. What is different from other weekends is that drivers have to qualify on hard tyres in Q1, medium rubber in Q2 and are only allowed to put on the red-rimmed tyre in Q3. It causes teams to try to save many sets of tyres for qualifying so as not to have to run on used tyres. As a result, many teams used used tyres during free practice, resulting in a lack of representative lap times.

Wolff denounces new format

Wolff is not pleased with the trial format. "It's weird. Nobody understand where you are. It doesn't work. Teams just drive one tyre in FP1, and FP2. It doesn't make sense. Then you're not able to understand the pecking order." The Austrian understands the idea behind the new format and is happy to think along, but this experiment can be thrown in the bin, as far as he is concerned. "I think you need to be open minded, to make the show and sustainability better. But I don't think this is something that worked. If something is not broken, don't fix it."

"If we are not good on the medium, you could fall off in Q2 and not make it to Q3 where we could be magical," sighs the Mercedes man, who will start qualifying Saturday afternoon with a tense feeling.