Motorsport: Leading F1drivers unhappy with ‘ill-structured’ leadership

Just one race into the Formula One season and unhappy drivers are calling the series’ decision-making “obsolete and ill-structured”, calling for a “restructuring” of its governance.

A rushed decision to change the rules of qualifying, and then scrap those changes after the season-opening Australian Grand Prix last weekend, showed how much F1 is riddled with confusion and uncertainty as it tries to regain popularity.

That was further underlined in another volte-face on Thursday when F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said the unpopular new qualifying format will remain in place – temporarily – at the Bahrain GP next week.

This comes after four-time champion Sebastian Vettel – a critic of the new qualifying format which underwhelmed spectators and frustrated drivers in Melbourne – joined former champ Jenson Button in demanding better leadership. Both signed an open letter on behalf of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA), along with its chairman Alex Wurz, to express their discontent.

“The drivers have come to the conclusion that the decision-making process in the sport is obsolete and ill-structured and prevents progress being made,” the GPDA said. “We feel that some recent rule changes – on both the sporting and technical side, and including some business directions – are disruptive, do not address the bigger issues our sport is facing, and in some cases could jeopardise its future success.” Changes to qualifying were unpopular. The three qualifying periods remained in place, but instead of having the slowest drivers eliminated at the end of each session, they were dropped one by one every minute and a half.

The last session, Q3, saw the first of the eight remaining drivers eliminated after five minutes until two cars were left for the final minute and a half.

At least, that was the plan. But in Melbourne, cars stayed in the garage way before the finish of Q3 and the exciting finale never materialised.

As a consequence, the series rule-makers – F1 stakeholders led by Ecclestone in conjunction with governing body FIA – were embarrassingly forced to make a u-turn.

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