This weekend the ball will finally begin with the 2026 Formula 1 World Championship, eagerly awaited by fans from all over the world eager to see the new cars in action, the same ones that will have to comply with drastic regulatory changes. The Circus moves forward, technologies progress, but the starting grid is still established today by a format that was introduced for the first time twenty years ago, in 2006. Perhaps some will not believe that so much time has passed, others perhaps yes, but the fact is that for two decades the pilots have constantly had to challenge the clock to first overcome the Q3do the same in Q2 and play for pole position Q1.
1996: the first, significant change
The qualifying format has never undergone major changes throughout history, with the fight for pole being concentrated from the 1950s to the early 1990s in two sessions between Friday (pre-qualifying) and Saturday. The first real change took place in the first edition of Australian GP in Melbourne, thirty years ago. In 1996, qualifying was concentrated for the first time only on Saturday, with one hour available for all drivers and a maximum of 12 laps for each. Unlike at the beginning of the decade, in order to take part in the race, participants had to close their gap within 107% from the time of the poleman, under penalty of exclusion from the GP. A rule that remained until 2002, with another change introduced the following year: in 2003in order to create greater spectacle, the ‘dry ride’with a single attempt for each driver in order to establish the starting grid. A format which, contrary to the FIA’s expectations, was not welcomed by the public, to the point of being abandoned during the 2005 season.
2006: here is the knock-out
In the 2006and therefore twenty years ago, Formula 1 encountered the format for the first time knockout. On the occasion of Bahrain Grand Prix on the Sakhir circuit (then home to the first round of the season) a split elimination system was introduced Q1, Q2 and Q3. Today as then, due to the same number of participants on the starting grid (22), the six slowest drivers are eliminated from the first phase, as are six others from the second. In the third and final, the last ten play for pole position, won for the first time with this system by Michael Schumacher ahead of his new Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa. Since then, the system has never undergone changes, except for an attempt made ten years ago, in 2016with the introduction of bankruptcy ‘hot chair’: after the start of each session (which lasted 16 minutes in Q1, 15 in Q2 and 14 in Q3), a driver was eliminated every minute and a half until the remaining two had the chance to fight for pole position. A format immediately rejected by both the public and the drivers, with the return to the original and current knock-out after a few races.
