How F1’s Brazilian GP grid will be formed if qualifying does not happen

The unexpected downpour that forced qualifying for Formula 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix to be postponed has prompted great intrigue about a unique ‘what if’ scenario.

And it is that, if the weather in Sao Paulo remains treacherous on Sunday morning and the rescheduled session cannot run, how will the grid for the F1 race be formed?

The matter has no definitive answer because, quite amazingly, there is nothing in the 2024 F1 Sporting Regulations that lays out definitively how a grid will be defined if qualifying cannot take place.

Quite why this is the case is not clear, but interestingly it is something that has been addressed for the 2025 season with an amendment to the regulations already stating how a grid will be put together in such circumstances.

A new Article 42.1 of the Sporting Regulations states that “in the exceptional circumstance” that qualifying does not take place then “with acceptance of the Stewards that the session cannot take place, the grid for the race will be defined based upon the drivers’ championship classification.”

That alteration was put in after the most recent F1 Commission and World Motor Sport Council meetings last month, but it is understood it came too late for an agreement to be reached for them to added to the 2024 rules.

So where does that leave things under the current circumstance for defining a grid right now?

There are two regulations here that potentially deal with the scenario of forming a grid when no qualifying times have been set – although neither are explicit in whether or not they deal with the circumstances of there being no qualifying session.

There is Article 39.4b that details a scenario of dealing with drivers who are “unclassified.” This is for any driver that “failed to set a time in Q1 or SQ1, or if all their laps were deleted.”

The rules then go on to explain that the classification of such a driver will be allocated “in accordance with the order they were classified in P3 (or, in the case a Sprint Session is scheduled, P1).”

This rule is intriguing though because it can be subject to a great deal of interpretation.

One viewpoint is that if qualifying is cancelled, because all drivers did not set a time in Q1, then everyone is ‘unclassified’ so on a sprint weekend that order would be decided by P1.

That would mean the fastest driver in opening practice, Lando…