Qualifying changes could hinder midfield - Grosjean

Romain Grosjean has revealed he doesn’t like the idea of adding an extra session to Formula 1 race qualifying and believes, ideas have been tried before and have failed.

The current format consists of three sessions in a knockout format, with the first two sessions eliminating five racers, ten in total, with Q3 deciding the order of the top ten. In 2016 they changed the format where drivers were eliminated during the session but this was reverted back to the current format after just three races.

In an interview on Crash.net Grosjean admitted his satisfaction with the current format.

“I don’t really see the point, I think three is pretty cool and a top 10 shootout is pretty nice,” said Grosjean.

“We’ve tried many qualifying sessions and it hasn’t changed the world.

The Frenchman recalls the 2016 fiasco revealing he was hoping he’d be knocked out of qualifying.

“2016 was the shootout, I remember in Bahrain, I was P8 and was hoping someone would push me out so I would start ninth to have free tyres.

“I think it’s actually a disadvantage for the midfield – five of the top three cars weren’t on the medium in qualifying, for them, it won’t change anything.”