As the rules were originally written, drivers were required to use new medium tires in Saturday’s SQ1 and SQ2 sessions, then new soft tires in SQ3.
The teams realized that they should not keep a set of new software for SQ3 if they felt that these tires would be more useful earlier in the weekend, either in FP1 or in Friday’s Grand Prix qualifying session.
In Baku, Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris used all their soft tires before sprint qualifying.
In this event, Tsunoda didn’t make SQ3, but Norris did.
McLaren left open the option for him to run at intermediate levels – which the rules allowed – if two drivers in the same situation did SQ3. However, Norris was not due to run, so he stayed in the garage and qualified 10th.
The ability to use intermediates in a dry session was seen as a farce by many in the paddock and has now been addressed.
The rules have been changed to allow drivers to use any set of soft tires in the SQ3.
This means that drivers can still gamble by running all their new software before sprint qualifying, knowing that at least they can still run in SQ3 even on used software.
Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-22, Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522, Zhou Guanyu, Alfa Romeo C42
Photo: Alessio Morghese
The door was open for such a change, as under Article 1.4 of the 2023 regulation, the FIA reserved the right to easily adjust the new sprint rules until August 1 after the first examples in Azerbaijan, Austria and Belgium.
The relevant circumstances include that any change “must address unforeseen issues arising from changes to these sporting rules approved by the WMSC in April 2023” and “must be intended solely to ensure sporting fairness or to avoid organizational problems’.
In addition, eight teams had to agree, and in this case all but one supported the change.
In his remarks published ahead of this weekend’s event at the Red Bull Ring, F1 race director Nils Wittich wrote: “To avoid the recognized unintended consequences where in certain sprint racing situations it becomes attractive to run intermediate tires on a dry track, the following amendment is made to Article 30.5.h of the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations.
“Consultations have been held with the commercial rights holder, stewards and teams. The consent of the FIA, the commercial rights holder and nine competitors has been obtained in accordance with Article 1.4.
“Accordingly, it is my decision that Article 30.5 h) iv) be amended to read as follows – Article 30.5h iv revised text:
“In the SQ3 period of the sprint shoot-out, up to one set of dry weather tires can be used and this must be a soft spec set only.”