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The Australian F1 Grand Prix makes a big change to qualifying in the name of driver safety after a request from the sport’s concerned bosses.
- The FIA raised concerns about the effect of sunset glare on drivers’ vision
- The organizers will start the qualifying session one hour earlier at 16:00 local time.
- Drivers including Daniel Ricciardo raised concerns during the 2022 GP
Qualifying for this year’s Australian Grand Prix will be brought forward after the sport’s governing body raised concerns that drivers were being put at risk by sunset glare interfering with their vision.
The battle for grid spots will now take place from 4-5pm local time, instead of the previous 5-6pm. The change has not been ratified by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), but that should only be a formality.
“The reason is that there have been some glare issues during qualifying,” Australian GP chief executive Andrew Westacott told the herald sun.
“The feedback via the FIA was that they wanted to do it earlier. We’re finalizing that right now, but it’s probably sooner just to make sure there’s ideal illumination from the sun rather than it being too low in the western sky.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (pictured after winning last year’s Australian GP) spoke about the problems drivers faced when trying to qualify during sunset.
Leclerc said darker visors were not enough to fix the problem.
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen was seen using tape on his visor to combat the problem at last year’s race and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who took pole position in 2022, spoke about the situation at the time.
“I don’t think there’s anything else we can do, nothing,” he said.
‘Even with the darkest visor, it’s still not enough and it would darken the rest of the track where there were clouds. It’s just a compromise that we have to find, but in the end it’s the same for everyone.’
Australian Daniel Ricciardo was also unimpressed with the light as he battled to qualify last April.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo’s trademark smile disappeared when he spoke about lack of vision during the sunset at the 2022 race, saying he “literally couldn’t see”.
“There was a race that we literally couldn’t see,” he explained.
“There were like four corners where I couldn’t find the vertex.”
The start time of the 2023 race on April 2 will remain unchanged at 3:00 p.m. local time, after it was briefly changed to 5:00 p.m. in 2009 to improve broadcast viewership ratings. abroad.