The sudden downpour that pressured qualifying for System 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix to be postponed has prompted nice intrigue a few distinctive ‘what if’ situation.
And it’s that, if the climate in Sao Paulo stays treacherous on Sunday morning and the rescheduled session can not run, how will the grid for the F1 race be shaped?
The matter has no definitive reply as a result of, fairly amazingly, there may be nothing within the 2024 F1 Sporting Laws that lays out definitively how a grid will probably be outlined if qualifying can not happen.
Fairly why that is the case is just not clear, however curiously it’s one thing that has been addressed for the 2025 season with an modification to the rules already stating how a grid will probably be put collectively in such circumstances.
Watch: What Brazil’s Rained Off Qualifying Means for Sundays Race – F1 Saturday Response
A brand new Article 42.1 of the Sporting Laws states that “within the distinctive circumstance” that qualifying doesn’t happen then “with acceptance of the Stewards that the session can not happen, the grid for the race will probably be outlined primarily based upon the drivers’ championship classification.”
That alteration was put in after the latest F1 Fee and World Motor Sport Council conferences final month, however it’s understood it got here too late for an settlement to be reached for them to added to the 2024 guidelines.
So the place does that depart issues underneath the present circumstance for outlining a grid proper now?
There are two rules right here that doubtlessly cope with the situation of forming a grid when no qualifying instances have been set – though neither are express in whether or not or not they cope with the circumstances of there being no qualifying session.
There may be Article 39.4b that particulars a situation of coping with drivers who’re “unclassified.” That is for any driver that “didn’t set a time in Q1 or SQ1, or if all their laps had been deleted.”
Rain falls forward of the qualifying
Photograph by: Purple Bull Content material Pool
The foundations then go on to elucidate that the classification of such a driver will probably be allotted “in accordance with the order they had been categorised in P3 (or, within the case a Dash Session is scheduled, P1).”
This rule is intriguing although as a result of it may be topic to an excessive amount of interpretation.
One viewpoint is that if qualifying is cancelled, as a result of all drivers didn’t set a time in Q1, then everyone seems to be ‘unclassified’ so on a dash weekend that order could be determined by P1.
That might imply the quickest driver in opening follow, Lando Norris, taking pole place – with Max Verstappen being handed fifteenth on the grid earlier than being moved back another five places because of his engine grid penalty.
Nevertheless, such an interpretation of the foundations is just not shared by everybody as a result of there’s a viewpoint that if qualifying is cancelled, however SQ1 has taken place, then the wording of 39.4b) really implies that any driver who did a lap in dash qualifying is ‘categorised’.
In that case, article 42.3 is triggered which offers with how the grid order is handed out.
This states: “Categorized drivers who’ve obtained 15 or much less cumulative grid penalties will probably be allotted a brief grid place equal to their qualifying session or dash qualifying session classification plus the sum of their grid penalties.”
Max Verstappen, Purple Bull Racing
Photograph by: Purple Bull Content material Pool
On this case, it may be interpreted that the grid order for categorised drivers is taken from their dash qualifying classification.
That might imply Oscar Piastri takes pole place for the grand prix forward of Norris, with Verstappen down in fourth place.
All of this debate concerning the interpretation of the rules is outmoded, nevertheless, by the Worldwide Sporting Code.
A check case for this got here on the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix when there was a danger of the grid not being shaped in comparable circumstances when qualifying was rained off on Saturday morning and delayed till Sunday.
Amid fears that qualifying might not even happen then, the stewards issued a observe detailing what would occur in the event that they needed to type a grid with out it.
They famous that “the FIA System 1 Sporting Laws are silent on the topic.”
As a substitute, they exercised the authority that was handed all the way down to them underneath Article 11.9.3b of the Worldwide Sporting Code to determine how the grid could be shaped.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF90, Carlos Sainz Jr., McLaren MCL34, and Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari SF90, within the pit lane at the beginning of Qualifying
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Photographs
This ISC rule provides the stewards whole authority to “amend the Supplementary Laws” – which successfully means they will determine how a grid is shaped.
On the time they concluded that this is able to be primarily based on the second free follow instances from Suzuka, which was the final aggressive session that befell as a result of Saturday was a whole wash-out.
Within the occasion that Sunday qualifying doesn’t occur in Brazil then a repeat circumstance of the stewards selecting which session determines the grid will probably be enacted – and would most certainly be the dash qualifying end result.
Nevertheless, there may be nothing to cease them selecting any standards they need.
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