Source: McLaren Media Centre

F1 News

Changing qualifying risks hurting value of F1 win - de Ferran

Changing qualifying risks hurting "value" of F1 win - de Ferran

03-10-2018 17:22
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Bobby Vincent

McLaren sporting director Gil de Ferran is against changing the Formula One format would reduce the "value" of winning a race.

Formula One bosses have considered the idea of changing the way F1 weekends are ran, with the possibility of a qualifying race before the actual race.

De Ferran revealed that he is a "traditionalist" who is cautious about the before-mentioned changes because he believes the sport could be hurt as a result.

"Qualifying is to determine the fastest guy," the McLaren sporting director told Motorsport. "It's the time of the weekend you don't have to worry about the brakes, you don't have to worry about the fuel, you don't have to worry about saving your tyres or anything like that.

"You just push like mad and do the best lap time you can. I always found that interesting even as a young fan. So, I'm a traditionalist in the sense that I like qualifying to determine the fastest guy and I like the race being a standalone sort of thing.

"I think it's important that we don't commoditise the races. Winning a grand prix has a lot of meaning. If you can call yourself a grand prix winner I think that carries a lot of weight and I think we must preserve that value."