The 107% rule questioned?
During the recent meeting on Thursday, on the sidelines of the Korean Grand Prix, several topics were discussed, including the one regarding the 107% rule implemented for qualifying since the 2011 season.
This rule aims to eliminate the slowest cars running more than 107% of the best time in Q1.
During this meeting, the teams suggested the idea of increasing the time tolerance to 110%. Red Bull’s dominance this season suggests that they may dominate the competition even more in 2012, and therefore, further sideline slower cars.
This season, the 107% rule came into effect only during the inaugural round in Australia, preventing both HRT drivers, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan, from participating in the race.
This underperformance must, however, be put into context as the two drivers of the Spanish team had not completed a single lap during the practice sessions.
On this subject, Colin Kolles, manager of HRT, is not in favor of the regulatory change as he is not concerned about his team’s performance: « It is an idea that has been discussed several times, but we are very happy to keep the limit at 107%. We have no problem with that.»
There should therefore be no change on this side of the regulations for the upcoming seasons…
