A new rule for qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend forbidding drivers from going too slow at all points on the track has been scrapped.
FIA race director Niels Wittich has issued an updated version of the Bahrain Grand Prix event notes, deleting a new requirement that was intended to be enforced for today’s first qualifying session of the season.
Ahead of last year’s Italian Grand Prix qualifying, Wittich informed teams that an existing rule limiting how long drivers’ in-laps could take would be extended to apply to every lap a driver completes during qualifying sessions. The move was intended to avoid dangerous build-ups of traffic seen during some sessions, particularly in the final sectors of circuits.
The rule was in effect for eight of the last nine grands prix in 2023, with drivers who exceeded the maximum lap time set each weekend summoned to the stewards. While the vast majority of investigations for exceeding the maximum lap time resulted in no further action taken, both Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda received reprimands for doing so in Interlagos.
For this year, Wittich originally advised drivers that not only must they stay under the maximum lap time between the two Safety Car lines between pit exit and pit entrance, but that they should do so “at least once in each marshalling sector” around the circuit.
However Wittich dropped that additional requirement in the latest version of his event notes issued on Friday morning. Drivers will now only be assessed for their speed across the full lap, as they were at the end of last season.
A note that the restrictions also apply to the pit lane has been kept in the newest version of the wording. Several instances of drivers delaying each other in the pits occured last year.
Following Thursday’s opening day of practice, Wittich has set the maximum lap time to 1’54.000 between the two Safety Car lines on the circuit. This is one second less than the maximum lap time for the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix, which was only enforced on in-laps, laps after the chequered flag and reconnaissance laps before the start of the race.
Revised qualifying restrictions
In order to ensure that cars are not driven unnecessarily slowly on in laps during and after the end of qualifying or during reconnaissance laps when the pit exit is opened for the race, drivers must stay below the maximum time set by the FIA between the Safety Car lines shown on the pit lane map.
Teams and drivers will be informed of the maximum…
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