Leclerc Points Out 'Randomness' Element In Newly Introduced Rules

Wednesday, 01 November 2023 at 23:00

Scuderia Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc responded to rules introduced in the 2023 season that dictate minimum lap time for drivers in qualification.

There has been a rule change introduced recently to eliminate dangerous situations in Qualifying sessions. The problem was drivers were queueing up before the last corner to start their flying lap.

This could cause very dangerous situations in tracks like Spa, where drivers who were just finishing their flying laps approached the last corner at very high speeds and had to knit through a line of waiting cars that were almost stationary.

The newly introduced rules dictate minimum lap time for the drivers, so they can't just wait for their turn before the last corner. However, a new problem has surfaced.

Instead of queueing up before the last corner, drivers now queue up at the end of the pit lane. The minimum lap time is counted once a driver crosses the safety car line behind the end of the pit lane.

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What drivers now do is they wait behind the safety car line for about six seconds from when the driver in front of them started their lap so they are not too close to each other.

As a consequence, we can see a line of cars waiting at the end of the pit lane multiple times throughout the qualifying session. Charles Leclerc reacted in a post-qualifying press conference to the new rules:

"I think the biggest thing that we got rid of is dangerous situation especially in last sector. Not necessarily for here, because the last sector is pretty low speed but in Spa, for example, sometimes we will have difference of speed between cars that will be crazy."

Leclerc acknowledged the positives of newly introduced rules as he seemed pretty happy with not having to avoid slowly going cars on track that much.

"And with that, I think it's been quite a good solution for that. On the other hand, it has created other problems that are not great."

The Monegasque driver does not seem to mind cars waiting at the end of the pit lane. On the other hand, he found a different problem that surfaced during qualifying in Qatar.

Obviously the end of the pit-lane – but this is, I think, the least of the problems, but the biggest one that I find myself quite a lot in, is whenever, especially in Q1, you've got two cars that are in a different sequence and if you get out the pits and you pass the Safety Car line 2 at the same time as a car out on track, then you are basically done, because you have to… both of the cars are respecting the minimum lap time and you cannot open the gap, and you just have to either fight the car like I did in Qatar with Fernando, or your lap is done.

The Ferrari driver identified a new problem with the rules and said it is something that needs to be looked at. He thinks that the current situation includes an element of randomness.

"So, this is something that it will be good to look at it, because there is a bit of randomness in that which is not great. And again, on the thing at the end of the pitlane, it is the only place where we can open the gap so difficult to do otherwise."