Drivers fume at 'HORRIBLE' F1 rule change

Wolff, Hamilton, Verstappen — Photo: © LAT Images

Drivers fume at 'HORRIBLE' F1 rule change

The Hungarian Grand Prix rule change has caused a bit of a stir

Matthew Hobkinson Lead Editor

F1 Editor & Journalist

Sunday 23 July 2023 12:57

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In a shake-up to the traditional qualifying tyre allocations, teams in Budapest this weekend have seen their usual 13 sets of rubber drop down to 11.

Beyond that, F1 have also mandated certain compounds for different qualifying sessions. The rules also meant that teams had to use the hard Pirelli for Q1, mediums for Q2 and softs for Q3.

What is known as the 'Alternative Tyre Allocation', the format which was first scheduled for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix prior to its cancellation earlier this year, aims to see if fewer tyres can be taken to grand prix weekends.

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Yet the new format has not gone down well with those in the sport, as we put together a compilation of some of the comments from the stars of F1.

Lewis Hamilton

"We only had one tyre that we were going to use this session. Not really a great format this change that they made for this weekend, it just means we get less running.

"Not ideal, and there's a lot of wet tyres I think they throw away after every weekend, like a lot, maybe they should look at something like that rather than taking time on track away from the fans."

Max Verstappen

"With this new format, you are super limited with the tyres you can use and I didn't want to use them today to at least have better preparation tomorrow.

"It's a shame. There are so many people around and you basically don't run a lot so we will have to see what we can do to improve that. We are literally just saving tyres which I think is not the correct thing."

Lando Norris

"I think we were lucky it rained, otherwise pretty much no one would have done anything in P1. It's complicated, it's confusing to me even."

Oscar Piastri

"It's tricky. You're trying to use as little amount of tyres as possible while learning as much as you can.

"I think it would have been quite a limited day of running if it was fully dry. We probably saw more laps than we would have with the rain. It's never that fun when you have one or two sets of tyres for a whole Friday, but it's a new challenge for us all."

Charles Leclerc

"It's going to be very tricky.

"The practice preparations are mixed across the grid, because there are so many different options you can choose now with this new format.

"So we'll see, it can be an opportunity. If you take the wrong decisions, it can go a bad way for your weekend, but it's part of the game."

Fernando Alonso

"Horrible. For me it's horrible. I don't think it has added much today in the time trial. People want to see a qualifying where we all try to go as fast as possible. Q1, Q2 and Q3 we tried to make progress during the sessions, but the bad thing about this format is that we had no tyres to practice on.

"All the free practices have been a continuous tyre saving in order to get to the time trial with fresh sets of tyres. I think that if you pay an entry fee of 300, 400, 500 euros, these barbarities and we can't go out because we are reserving tyres.

"I don't think that's what Formula 1 wants. But well, you have to try it and if I had an opinion, I wouldn't vote for this format."

Toto Wolff

"First of all this tyre format is weird because no one understands where you are. We were only able to run one medium yesterday and that wasn't good at all."