F1 News: Juan Pablo Montoya reveals 'best' era for major F1 format

Japan, Restart, 2024, generic — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 legend reveals 'best' era for major F1 format

The former F1 driver gave his thoughts on the best qualifying format in his career

Tyler Rowlinson

Tuesday 16 April 2024 10:57

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Legendary Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya has revealed what he believes is the ‘best’ era for the sport’s qualifying format.

F1 fans today are familiar with the current qualifying format, which consists of three sessions, with five drivers eliminated in each of the first two (Q1 and Q2), before a 10-car shootout for pole position in Q3.

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But back in 2002, the system was significantly different, as qualifying only consisted of a single one-hour session.

First introduced in 1996 – when the previous format, which ran from the first championship in 1950, was two sessions, one on the Friday and the Saturday, with the fastest overall time taking pole position – drivers had one hour along with a maximum of twelve laps.

Juan Pablo Montoya grabbed seven pole positions in 2002

Drivers had one hour to set 12 laps in qualifying

Montoya reveals best qualifying format

During the 2002 season – the final year that used that format until 2003, where it became one-lap qualifying – Montoya grabbed seven pole positions, level with Michael Schumacher, including five consecutive poles from Monaco to France.

However, the Colombian was unable to convert any of them into wins, as Ferrari completely dominated the season and Schumacher cruised to his fifth world title.

And speaking with the Beyond The Grid podcast, the former Williams and McLaren driver, who won seven races in his career, claimed that format was the best in the sport.

Montoya was unable to convert his poles into wins

“Yeah, it was weird,” he said. “I did well at it, for me, the four laps were the best. The four-lap qualifying for me was so good because you could build on it.

“The way I always looked at it was ‘ok, lap one let’s match what we did in practice.’ If you can match what you did in practice or even a little better because you’ve got to take less fuel, you started really well.

“If the first run – you're on par with practice, it means from now on, whatever you do is a plus. If you had a car for the pole, that first lap was good enough for sixth, seventh, maybe eighth place. It means even if I throw the car off now, I’m starting in a decent place.”